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GOING  TO 
WAR  IN  GREECE 

By 

Frederick  Palmer 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM   PHOTOGRAPHS 
TAKEN  BY  THE  AUTHOR 


NEW  YORK:    R.  H.  RUSSELL 

1897 


-5^^"-^ 


<:?*Sj 


Copyright  1897 
BY  ROBERT  HOWARD  RUSSELL 


•  I  •      • 


TO 

ERVIN  WARDMAN 


420239 


Going  to  War  in  Greece 


CHAPTER  I. 


ON  my  way  to  the  front,  and  then  during  the 
month  that  I  waited  with  the  army  of 
Greece  for  war,  and  during  the  month's 
campaign  that  followed,  I  drifted  in  a  world  of 
uncertainty  more  or  less  droll  or  delightful  even 
when  the  unexpected,  which  I  grew  to  expect 
as  a  matter  of  course,  meant  the  loss  of  my 
dinner  or  a  night  retreat.  The  editor's  cable- 
gram of  instruction  itself,  which  I  received  in 
Paris,  shared  a  coat  pocket  with  an  evening  edi- 
tion of  "Le  Jour"  announcing,  as  usual,  the 
blockade  of  Greece  within  twenty-four  hours, 
bloodshed  on  the  Greco-Turkish  frontier,  and  the 
likelihood  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  Sultan's  am- 
bassador from  Athens  at  any  minute.  Italian 
dailies  purchased  through  a  car  window  the  next 
afternoon  said  the  same  except  that  the  blockade 
had  been  postponed  for  another  day. 


^%l]<'iyiK^'omgiiy'W'^T  in  Greece 

At  Brindisi  I  sought  the  font  of  official  in- 
formation in  the  person  of  the  Greek  consul, 
who  told  me  what  he  had  read  in  the  newspapers. 
Then  I  went  on  board  the  steamer  for  Patras  to 
find  the  captain  fearful  lest  he  should  be  turned 
back  by  a  European  man-of-war.  The  passen- 
gers, made  up  of  European  volunteers  in  the 
cause  of  Phil-Hellenism,  Greeks  returning  home  in 
a  sanguinary  mood  and  newspaper  correspondents 
sceptical  lest  war  should  be  so  unaccommodating 
as  not  to  await  their  arrival,  discussed  such  a 
probability  far  into  the  night  in  the  saloon. 

At  Corfu  the  next  morning  the  boatmen  who 
clambered  up  the  sides  of  the  steamer  in  an 
odorous,  gesticulating  swarm,  said  that  war  had 
been  already  declared.  '*  When  ? "  we  asked. 
"  Oh,"  they  replied  nonchalantly,  "  two  or  three 
weeks  ago."  Then  seeing  that  we  were  down- 
cast and  might  not  go  ashore  in  their  boats, 
they  said  that  war  would  be  declared  after  we 
arrived. 

Would  the  American  consul  know  the  latest 
news  from  Athens  ?  I  asked  of  a  grinning  loafer 
who  held  me  fast  against  the  rail  by  the  menace 
of  his  gestures.  Oh,  yes,  he  would  know.  His 
Excellency   received    a   thousand   slips    of   blue 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  3 

paper — telegrams — every  day,  and  was  a  very 
great  man,  indeed,  if  he  were  my  friend. 

The  consul  said  he  received  no  official  news  at 
all  from  Athens,  but  he  knew  to  a  certainty  that 
war  had  not  been  declared  ;  the  blockade  was  not 
yet  in  force ;  and  all  reports  of  bloody  engage- 
ments on  the  frontier  were  false.  When  I  taxed 
my  boatman  with  his  thousand  blue  telegrams  he 
seemed  quite  surprised  that  I  should  have  mis- 
understood him.  He  referred  to  another  consul 
who  went  away  a  year  ago. 

"  What  do  you  and  all  of  your  friends  who 
hang  about  the  quay  do  for  a  living  ?  "  I  asked, 
as  he  lazily  dipped  his  oars  in  the  blue  sea  on  our 
way  back  to  the  steamer. 

"Wait  for  the  boat  to  come  in." 

"  How  often  does  it  come  ?  " 

"Twice  a  week.  We  are  very  busy  in  war 
time." 

That  a  battle  could  scarcely  be  fought  until 
our  arrival  was  so  much  of  a  relief  that  we 
dropped  prophecy  after  the  steamer  was  under 
way  again  for  a  showing  of  private  arms  in  the 
smoking-room.  This — consider  the  patents! — 
required  time  for  comparison  and  argument,  the 
merits  of  two  different  revolvers  being  so  hotly 


4  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

contested  at  one  moment  as  to  promise  a  test  of 
them  on  the  spot. 

The  Custom  House  officer  at  Patras  told  us 
that  the  newspapers  said  that  there  had  been  a 
battle  in  which  a  hundred  Greeks  had  slaughtered 
a  thousand  Turks,  though  war  had  not  been 
formally  declared.  He  refused  to  examine  the 
baggage  of  patriots  who  had  come  to  fight  for 
his  country,  as  he  knew  we  had,  and  then  bought 
the  latest  newspaper  for  half  a  cent.  Everybody 
in  the  little  town  seemed  to  be  idle  and  reading 
newspapers,  except  one  sober  being  who  was 
milking  a  goat  on  the  main  street. 

At  each  station  on  the  way  to  Athens  by  rail 
we  looked  out  of  the  windows  upon  a  sea  of 
newspapers,  upon  knots  and  groups  of  peasants 
and  villagers  who,  believing  with  all  their  heart 
that  yesterday  a  hundred  Greeks  had  slaughtered 
a  thousand  Turks,  were  now  in  quest  of  a  later 
rumor.  Thus  by  canard  upon  canard,  during 
four  weeks  more  of  absolute  quiet  on  the  fron- 
tier, the  war  was  always  about  to  begin  just  as 
the  next  day  was  always  to  see,  but  never  did 
see  the,  blockade  by  the  Powers. 

As  we  passed  brown  Salamis  set  in  the  blue 
gulf   with    Homer's   mountains  beyond    it    and 


^w 


i^^^^^im 


are  very  busy  in  war  time,'  he  said.' 


"Reserves  marched  to  the  Piraeus. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  5 

Homer's  sky  beyond  them,  and  as  the  Parthenon 
appeared  through  a  car  window,  they  blotted  out 
scare  headlines  in  the  tongue  of  Thucydides,  they 
muffled  the  noise  of  a  train  rounding  a  curve, 
and  for  the  passing  moment  they  made  heroes  of 
our  fellow-passengers,  the  soft-voiced  Scotch  Pro- 
fessor of  Philosophy  and  the  dapper  students  of 
the  Sorbonne,  who  had  come  to  enlist  as  privates 
in  the  army  of  the  Greece  that  still  possesses  the 
Parthenon  and  Homer's  sky. 

But  you  sought  in  vain  in  the  faces  thrust  out 
of  the  windows  of  the  forward  cars  in  which  Re- 
serves were  crowded  like  cattle,  and  in  the  face 
of  the  captain  of  infantry  who  entered  our  com- 
partment four  miles  out  of  Athens,  for  the  nose 
and  chin  of  the  marbles  in  the  Greek  National 
Museum  at  Athens.  We  saw  instead  the  faces  of 
Slav  children,  who  were  a  subject  people  not  long 
ago,  and  our  sentiment  fluttered  down  from  the 
Acropolis  to  the  dusty  streets  of  Modern  Athens. 

But  the  captain,  with  whom  we  spoke,  said 
grandiloquently  in  excellent  French  that  the 
soldiers  of  Greece,  fighting  in  a  manner  worthy 
of  their  ancestors,  would  not  stop  in  their  career 
of  conquest  until  they  took  Constantinople. 


CHAPTER  II. 

AS  a  matter  of  course  there  is  a  Place  de  la 
Concorde  and  a  Place  de  la  Constitution 
in  Athens,  which  imitates  Paris  in  such 
preeminently  Gallic  habits  as  the  guillotine,  street 
cafes,  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  mobs  made  to 
order,  and  in  all  small  things  whatsoever  that 
constitute  the  Paris  of  the  boulevards  and  the 
sign-boards,  not  great  Paris  ;  and  it  also  follows 
that  these  Athenian  squares  are  on  a  small  scale, 
while  a  barnlike  king's  palace  overlooks  one 
of  them,  the  Place  de  la  Constitution.  Here 
are  the  hotels  which  shelter  in  ordinary  times 
such  English  and  American  travelers  as  do  not 
consider  Italy  the  end  of  the  world,  their 
places  being  taken  by  war  correspondents  when 
the  prospective  discomforts  of  extraordinary 
times  kept  the  travelers  away.  Here,  too,  is  the 
foremost  caf6  whence  the  King  receives  his  or- 
ders, evolved  from  the  chatter  and  the  gesticula- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  7 

tions  of  the  idle,  who  form  a  conspicuous  majority 
in  Athens. 

The  King's  popularity  was  waning  again  when 
I  arrived  in  Athens.  He  was  too  conservative 
to  please  the  cafe,  which  is  nothing  if  not  radical 
and  sentimental.  He  had  annexed  Crete,  it  is  true. 
He  had  assumed  dominion  over  a  portion  of  an 
empire — that  empire  having  more  than  fifteen 
times  the  population  of  his  own  kingdom — with- 
out the  empire's  consent,  while  the  world,  with 
the  Cross  and  the  Parthenon  before  its  eyes, 
cheered  him  for  his  pluck.  A  thousand  Greek 
soldiers  under  Colonel  Vassos  were  encamped  in 
the  mountains  of  Crete,  drinking  wine,  eating 
biscuits  and  cheese,  and  day-dreaming — sent 
there  to  assist  their  Cretan  brothers  to  put 
down  the  Turk.  A  cordon  of  war-ships,  repre- 
senting the  concert  of  Europe,  had  surrounded 
Crete.  The  concert  said  that  Colonel  Vassos 
must  leave  the  island.  Europe  itself  was  to  give 
to  Crete  autonomy  and  consequently  peace, 
which  was  the  very  thing  not  wanted  by  the 
Cretan  child,  of  from  fifteen  to  eighty  years,  who 
likes  a  revolution  as  well  as  a  European  diplomat 
likes  a  good  dinner.  Colonel  Vassos  refused  to 
heed  any  orders  except  those   of   the    King  of 


8  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Greece,  who  bade  him  to  sit  and  wait,  a  policy 
to  the  liking  of  this  easy-going  officer.  The 
Powers  could  manage  to  agree  only  to  the  point 
of  a  blockade  ;  not  to  the  point  of  sending  a 
force  to  discipline  the  recalcitrant  Greeks.  Thus, 
Colonel  Vassos  became  the  greatest  man  in  the 
world  of  daily  news  and  paradox,  and  the  Cafe 
de  la  Constitution  the  power  behind  his  throne. 

But  the  caf^  growing  great,  grew  more  ambi- 
tious, and  wanted  to  increase  the  triumph  it 
enjoyed.  The  King  had  shown  pluck  enough  to 
last  only  three  or  four  weeks.  He  must  begin 
an  aggressive  war  on  the  northern  frontier,  which 
would  end — as  the  caf^  knew  perfectly  well — in 
the  taking  of  Constantinople.  Already  the  caf^ 
was  resorting  to  its  old  mob  methods  which  had 
usually  brought  the /  King  to  terms.  For  the 
caf6,  with  its  motto  that  no  cabinet  ought  to  re- 
main in  office  longer  than  a  month,  was  even 
mightier  in  war  than  in  peace.  At  its  bidding, 
the  peasants  who  tended  sheep  on  the  mountain 
sides  went  merrily  off  to  the  battle-field  with  as 
little  idea  of  the  cost  of  war  as  had  the  caf^ 
itself. 

When  I  first  saw  a  mob  start  for  the  palace  I 
fully  expected  to  see  the  two  lone  Evzoni,  guard- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  9 

ing  the  front  door,  borne  down  and  the  King 
brought  out  by  force  to  face  his  enraged  subjects. 
The  mob  was  started  every  evening  by  some  un- 
kempt being  who,  jumping  up  from  a  table, 
would  wave  his  hands  and  cry :  "  To  the  palace  !  " 
"  A  lamp-post  for  the  tyrant !  "  He  then  walked 
up  and  down  until  he  had  gathered  a  crowd  of 
followers,  who,  firing  pistols  into  the  air,  advanced 
up  the  hillside.  They  went  as  far  as  the  steps  of 
the  palace.  The  Evzoni  regarded  them  with  a 
grin.  A  flunky  perhaps  stood  lowering  in  the 
doorway.  If  so,  he  refused  to  ask  the  King  to 
come  out.  After  calling  the  King  all  the  names 
they  knew,  the  rioters  returned  chattering  to  the 
cafe,  well  pleased  with  themselves. 

Unlike  the  Parisian  mob,  ever  wantonly  de- 
structive, the  Athenian  mob  destroys  nothing. 
It  has  more  fun  at  less  expense  than  any  other 
mob  in  the  world.  Being  too  democratic  to  have 
a  regular  head,  leadership  is  passed  around  like 
the  turn  to  deal  at  cards.  Almost  every  profes- 
sional idler  can  boast  of  having  led  a  movement 
which  all  but  dethroned  the  King.  His  mob 
and  himself  without  breaking  a  single  pane  of 
glass  enjoyed  their  spree  as  fully  as  if  they  had 
razed  half  of  Athens   to  the  ground — economy 


lo  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

suggesting  an  innovation  in  the  school  for  gamins 
in  Paris.  It  is  to  the  cafe  that  the  Athenian 
Chamber  of  Deputies  turns  for  instructions  and 
the  King  obeys  the  mandates  of  the  Deputies. 

As  comprehensible  as  were  the  gestures  of  the 
caf^,  its  chatter  was  Greek,  modern  Greek,  to 
me.  A  dragoman  must  be  an  adjunct  of  any 
conversations  I  might  hold  with  the  caf^  or  the 
army.  I  did  not  have  to  search  for  Castopis,  or 
his  like.  Castopis  manoeuvred  softly  up  to  me 
in  the  hotel  corridor,  his  pocket  full  of  recom- 
mendations from  travelers,  and  counted  off  the 
languages  at  his  command  on  one  hand  and  his 
accomplishments  on  the  other  with  the  voice  and 
demeanor  of  oriental  majesty.  He  was  a  cele- 
brated dragoman,  the  superior  of  all  other  drago- 
men, he  said.  Could  I  doubt  his  courage  when 
his  clothes  had  been  matted  with  blood  and 
brains  in  the  Soudan  under  General  Wolseley? 
Then  he  drew  near  and  spoke  frankly  of  his  one 
disqualification  :  "  The  singing  of  bullets  is  sweet 
music,  sir,"  he  said.  "  If  I  forget  myself  and 
want  to  rush  into  the  thick  of  the  fight,  you 
must  hold  me  back.  My  duty  is  to  you.  I  will 
try  hard  to  control  myself  for  your  sake,  sir."     • 

So  it  was  arranged  that  Castopis  and  I  should 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  1 1 

go  to  war  together.  We  started  by  asking  for 
military  passports.  I  noticed  that  he  took  an  un- 
necessarily long  time  to  translate  what  I  had  to 
say.  After  leaving  the  war  office  I  asked  him 
about  it. 

"You  leave  it  to  me,  sir,"  he  replied,  "and  I'll 
make  you  the  greatest  war  correspondent  the 
world  has  ever  known.  I  told  the  minister  of 
war  that  you  were  a  mighty  man  in  your  own 
land.  You  were  going  to  send  over  the  Ameri- 
can fleet  to  help  Greece  if  the  Greeks  treated  you 
properly.  And  I  told  him  not  to  allow  any  other 
American  correspondents  to  go  to  the  front,  as 
they  were  Turkish  spies.  Sir,  I  am  entirely 
devoted  to  your  interests." 

When  I  said  that  we  must  return  to  the  minis- 
ter of  war  to  explain,  I  saw  his  mood  change  to 
that  of  a  man  with  an  elephant  on  his  hands. 
Henceforth,  I  felt  that  Castopis  had  me  in  his 
power.  My  wilfulness  was  not  to  be  allowed  to 
work  against  my  future  greatness.  He  became 
my  mentor  and  guardian,  and  soon  I  found  myself 
deep  in  plots  to  keep  him  from  sending  cable- 
grams to  my  paper  or  to  the  State  Department 
at  Washington  in  my  name.  I  spoke  to  the 
American  minister  about  him  and  the  American 


12  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

minister  said  he  had  the  reputation  of  being  a 
wonderful  dragoman.  It  was  best  to  be  satisfied 
with  my  lot,  he  thought. 

Having  secured  the  necessary  equipment,  Cas- 
topis  said  that  we  were  to  go  to  Volo,  on  our  way 
to  the  front,  by  a  transport  that  carried  Reserves. 
Nobody  knew  the  hour  of  the  transport's  sailing. 
We  must  sit  on  its  deck  until  it  started,  and  it 
would  start  as  soon  as  all  of  the  Reserves  that 
it  could  carry  had  marched  from  the  barracks 
through  the  Place  de  la  Constitution  down  to  the 
Piraeus.  Captains  apparently  started  out  with 
their  companies  whenever  the  inspiration  seized 
them  at  the  cafe. 

By  chance  we  reached  the  transport  in  the 
evening  just  as  it  was  full  and  about  to  weigh 
anchor.  The  little  saloon  was  crowded  with 
officers,  many  of  whom,  like  the  soldiers  on  deck, 
had  to  sleep  on  the  floor  for  want  of  bunks.  Elo- 
quent representations  were  made  to  the  com- 
manding officer,  and  I  blushed  for  the  lies  Cas- 
topis  had  told  when  the  commanding  officer 
offered  to  share  his  stateroom  with  me. 

The  commanding  officer  did  not  seem  in  a 
hurry  despite  government  complaint  of  a  lack  of 
transports  at  a  moment  when  rapid  mobilization 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  1 3 

on  the  frontier  was  of  vital  importance.  In  the 
morning  we  stopped  at  Chalcis  for  an  hour  so 
that  some  of  our  ofificers  might  chat  with  rela- 
tives who  were  with  the  Greek  fleet  then  at 
anchor  there.  Late  in  the  afternoon  we  arrived 
at  Volo.  Our  battalion  remained  on  board  all 
night  and  the  transport  did  not  start  back  for 
more  troops  until  the  next  day. 


CHAPTER  III. 

VOLO,  on  the  landlocked  Gulf  of  Volo,  a  vast 
metropolis  to  the  dozen  white  specks  of 
villages  hanging  on  the  mountain  sides 
above  it,  under  Greek  rule  had  awakened  from 
Turkish  sloth  to  an  increasing  population  and  a 
brisk  trade  with  the  neighboring  islands  of  the 
^gean  Sea.  Soldiers  brought  as  far  as  Volo  by 
the  transports  started  for  Larissa,  the  headquar- 
ters of  mobilization,  when  some  one  thought  of 
making  ready  the  trains  and  when  the  officers  had 
told  all  the  news  from  Athens  to  their  friends  in 
Volo.  The  distance  from  Volo  to  Larissa  is  thirty 
miles,  which  requires  three  hours'  travel  by  rail 
owing  to  a  rather  stiff  grade  up  the  mountain  pass 
from  Volo  to  Velestino  and  to  the  existence  of 
cafes  at  several  of  the  way  stations.  We  left  Volo 
fully  twenty-four  hours  after  our  arrival,  with  a 
cry  of  "  Long  live  the  war  !  "  which  was  repeated 
to  every  distant  figure  in  the  fields  and  at  every 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  15 

stopping-place.  The  peasants  gazed  at  us  silent 
and  unmoved,  for  their  land  was  a  little  nearer  to 
the  boundary-line  than  that  of  the  bellicose  peas- 
ants of  the  Peloponnesus.  Sophisticated  idlers 
at  the  stations  exhibited  all  the  might  of  their 
lungs.  Priesthood  in  long  black  hair  and  ragged, 
long  black  raiment  came  down  from  the  moun- 
tains donkeyback  to  indulge  in  grandiose  proph- 
ecy. 

**  Long  live  the  war !  "  cried  the  heads  stuck 
out  of  the  car  windows  as  the  train  drew  in  at  the 
Larissa  station.  "  Long  live  the  war !  "  was  the 
reply  of  the  crowd.  The  minarets  and  Turkish 
architecture  of  Larissa  were  dimly  visible  in  the 
dusk,  calling  to  mind  how  recent  was  the  occu- 
pation of  Thessaly  by  Greece.  As  I  wished  to 
cross  the  frontier  and  see  the  Turkish  army  be- 
fore war  was  declared,  it  was  not  wise  in  this  land 
of  uncertainty  to  wait  until  after  dinner  before 
making  arrangements.  General  Macris,  in  com- 
mand at  Larissa,  said  he  could  assure  me  of  pro- 
tection for  the  fifteen  miles  to  the  Greek  watch- 
house  in  Meluna  Pass.  As  for  the  rest,  he 
shrugged  his  shoulders.  Though  the  Turkish 
consul  might  back  my  passport,  he  said,  when 
our  secretary   of  state  came  to  investigate  the 


1 6  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

affair  the  Sultan  would  greatly  regret  the  un- 
fortunate accident  which  was  due  to  the  igno- 
rance of  a  private  soldier. 

That  brown  little  man,  the  Turkish  consul  at 
Larissa,  said  he  would  be  delighted  to  give  me 
safe  conduct  to  and  from  Meluna  Pass  and  Elas- 
sona,  the  headquarters  of  the  Turkish  army,  but 
— lifting  his  shoulders  quite  on  a  level  with  his 
ears — it  was  not  for  him  to  guarantee  that  I 
should  pass  through  Greek  territory  alive.  When 
I  handed  him  my  passport  he  asked  for  my 
dragoman's  also.  But  Castopis  said  that  he  had 
none. 

**  Then  I  cannot  allow  him  to  accompany  you," 
said  the  consul. 

Here  was  a  difificulty.  I  could  not  speak  Turk- 
ish, and  it  was  quite  unfeasible  that  I  should  go 
alone.  I  turned  to  Castopis,  who  promptly  as- 
sumed the  air  of  an  injured  satrap. 

"  I  should  like  to  know,  Your  Excellency,  the 
Honorable  Consul,"  he  said,  "  when  it  became 
necessary  for  a  servant  of  yourself  or  of  any  other 
great  gentleman  to  have  a  separate  passport  ? 
Is  it  expected  that  a  gentleman  shall  travel  with- 
out a  servant  ?  Above  all,  is  this  expected  of  a 
great   American    gentleman   accustomed   to   go 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  17 

from  town  to  town  with  a  magnificent  train  of 
followers  ?  " 

The  consul  bowed  very  low  and  agreed  to 
make  an  exception  for  once  in  his  official  career. 

Then  we  set  out  to  find  quarters  for  the  night. 
The  two  hotel  keepers  wobbled  their  heads  and 
pounded  the  air  with  their  hands  in  dismay. 
They  had  long  ago  ceased  to  offer  so  much  as  a 
place  on  the  hall  floor  and  so  far  as  they  knew 
the  only  available  sleeping  quarters  in  the  town 
were  the  streets.  The  streets  were  fordable  but 
not  practicable  as  beds. 

"  Do  not  worry,"  said  Castopis,  "the  mayor  is 
my  friend.  The  hotel  keeper  is  swine.  I  will 
teach  the  hotel  keeper  civility  and  the  extent  of 
my  influence." 

After  an  hour's  search  through  caf^s,  barracks 
and  alleyways,  only  a  mud  puddle  stood  between 
us  and  the  mayor.  Among  the  hundred  other 
applicants  for  rooms  who  surrounded  him  we 
recognized  soldiers  who  were  on  our  transport. 
The  mayor  was  at  his  wits'  end  to  find  them  a 
place  for  the  night.  Every  room  in  his  new 
City  Hall  was  taken,  as  was  every  empty  store- 
room and  warehouse.  Castopis  leaped  over  the 
puddle,   grasped   the    mayor's   hand,   felicitated 


1 8  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

him  upon  his  noble  career,  and  returned  with  a 
beatific  grin.  The  mayor  had  referred  him  to  a 
leading  citizen  who  would  rent  the  finest  room 
in  his  house  for  sixty-two  and  a  half  cents  a 
day.  The  leading  citizen  and  all  of  his  family 
received  us  at  the  doorway  of  his  little  courtyard 
and  followed  me  upstairs  to  my  room,  where 
they  watched  me  wash  my  hands  with  great  in- 
terest, until  Castopis  shooed  them  away.  My 
bed  was  two  boards  nailed  against  the  wall.  Its 
mattress  I  discarded  on  the  advice  of  Castopis, 
who  looked  at  it  and  then  at  me  and  said, 
'*  Bugs  !  "  He  slept  on  his  mattress,  however, 
remarking  that  he  was  a  Greek. 

By  day  it  is  broiling  hot  on  the  Thessalian 
plain  ;  but  we  found  the  air  uncomfortably  chill 
when  we  arose  at  sunrise  the  next  morning. 
Our  escort,  a  young  cavalry  ofificer,  a  cast-off 
Parisian  carriage  behind  three  skinny  horses  and 
a  driver,  met  us  in  front  of  the  caf6.  The  officer 
as  a  proof  of  his  endurance  unbuttoned  his  tunic 
to  show  that  he  wore  no  undershirt,  incidentally 
pointing  to  a  scar  he  had  received  in  a  duel  while 
at  school  in  Germany.  His  back  was  in  the 
form  of  a  bow  and  the  ends  of  his  moustache 
turned  up  in  a  dashing  curve. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  19 

Our  carriage  bounced  and  slewed  and  rattled 
over  the  plain,  a  four  hours'  drive  to  Turnavo, 
where  we  spent  some  few  moments  with  the  offi- 
cers in  the  tumbledown  old  barracks  ;  then  along 
the  base  of  the  mountains,  halting  to  ask  the  best 
point  to  ford  a  stream,  or  to  exchange  news  with 
the  officers,  who  lined  their  men  up  in  front  of 
tents  on  the  hillside  or  bade  them  cheer  us  on 
principle,  the  road  becoming  more  and  more 
uneven  and  inclined  until  we  reached  the  end  of 
the  carriage  route,  Liguria,  a  little  town  which 
seemed  to  sit  as  comfortably  in  the  mouth  of  the 
Meluna  Pass  as  a  workbasket  in  a  woman's  lap. 
The  officer  insisted  upon  riding  up  the  pass  a 
Hungarian  horse  that  had  been  imported  for  the 
cavalry.  In  a  quarter  of  an  hour  this  fine  animal, 
as  uneasy  as  a  fish  out  of  water,  was  flecked  with 
foam  and  more  beaten  than  if  he  had  done  forty 
miles  in  the  open.  My  little  mountain  pony  had 
scarcely  a  wet  hair.  An  ally  of  safety  but  not  of 
comfort  was  his  native  saddle,  which  was  like 
riding  a  rail  that  had  taken  to  dancing.  He  had 
no  bridle  and  needed  none.  He  picked  his  way 
over  the  stones  with  consummate  skill  and  be- 
coming deliberateness,  up  and  up  the  narrow,  zig- 
zag path,  until  the  Thessalian  plain  becoming  a 


20  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

panorama  seemed  so  near  that  I  could  reach  out 
and  pick  a  blossom  from  one  of  the  almond-trees 
in  the  village  of  Dheleria,  some  seven  miles  away  ; 
while  over  my  head  the  ardent  sunlight  glowed 
and  glistened  on  the  ridges  and  sparkled  in 
the  hollows  of  snowy  Olympus,  dimly  reveal- 
ing its  dense,  white  apex  through  fluffy,  white 
clouds. 

I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  the  wrinkled 
sub-lieutenant  stationed  in  the  Turkish  watch- 
house  had  ever  looked  beyond  the  fumes  of 
his  cigarette  at  this  scene.  When  we — includ- 
ing three  Evzoni  and  a  sub-lieutenant  from  the 
Greek  watch-house — crossed  the  boundary-line 
to  ask  a  favor  of  him,  we  had  other  things  to 
talk  about.  The  Greeks,  in  trying  to  do  their 
best  for  me,  somewhat  prejudiced  the  sub-lieu- 
tenant by  saying  that  I  was  a  great  friend  of 
theirs.  With  a  flood  of  expostulations,  the  sub- 
lieutenant explained  that  he  could  not  let  me 
pass.  We  persisted,  and  then  he  invited  us  into 
his  little  sitting-room,  while  he  squatted  on  a 
divan  and  for  the  first  time  mumbled  through 
the  words  of  Turkish  on  my  passport.  The  pass- 
port was  all  very  well,  he  said,  but  it  provided 
for  an  escort.     As  he  had  only  two  soldiers  with 


In  front  of  tents  on  the  hillside. 


Bade  them  cheer  on  principle," 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  21 

him  he  could  not  afford  an  escort,  and  he  rea- 
soned, therefore,  that  the  passport  was  void.  I 
said  I  would  go  without  any  escort  except  Cas- 
topis,  assuming  all  consequent  risks ;  myself 
whereupon  the  sub-lieutenant  scratched  his  head 
and  asked  all  present  to  have  cigarettes.  On  the 
whole,  he  was  a  mild  and  rather  gentlemanly 
Turkish  officer,  but  lacking  in  some  measure  ready 
mental  concentration.  He  mumbled  through  the 
passport  again  and  then  again,  running  a  stubby 
forefinger  from  word  to  word.  At  last  the  fore- 
finger rose  up  under  Castopis's  nose,  bearing  the 
great  news  that  our  ponies  had  not  been  men- 
tioned by  the  consul.  This  omission  settled 
everything  against  us,  he  thought. 

"  We'll  walk  ;  we'll  go  without  our  ponies,"  I 
bade  Castopis  tell  him. 

**  Good  sir,"  said  the  sub-lieutenant,  as  he 
folded  the  passport  with  the  air  of  a  beaten  man, 
"  I  could  not  think  of  allowing  that." 

But  I  was  barely  on  my  pony's  back  when  I 
foresaw  more  trouble.  The  sub-lieutenant  was 
scratching  his  head  again.  He  took  hold  of  the 
pony's  halter,  saying  that  our  revolvers  were  not 
included  in  the  passport,  anyway,  and  we  might 
not  take  them  with  us. 


22  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

"  We  will  gladly  comply,"  was  the  answer,  **  if 
you  will  give  us  a  sufficient  escort." 

The  sub-lieutenant  reluctantly  let  go  of  the 
pony's  halter,  and  I  began  my  career  in  Mace- 
donia. 

Soon  I  noticed  that  the  two  rosy-cheeked 
young  Turkish  soldiers  whom  the  officer  had 
spared  after  all  to  escort  us  for  some  distance, 
carried  their  rifles  well  in  front,  ever  ready  for 
instant  use,  and  never  took  their  eyes  from 
the  treacherous  infidel,  that  is  myself.  So  I 
gave  them  cigarettes  and  smiled  at  them.  They 
smiled  back  and  threw  their  rifles  over  their 
shoulders.  Thus  we  became  excellent  friends 
for  the  rest  of  our  journey  together. 

It  was  at  Elassona  that  Edhem  Pasha  was 
then  hammering  the  Turkish  army  into  fighting 
material  and  Elassona  was  at  the  head  of  a  small 
valley  some  three  or  four  miles  from  the  foot  of 
Meluna  Pass  on  the  Turkish  side.  I  found  him 
to  be  a  pleasant,  handsome,  full-bearded  man  in 
a  fez  and  a  beautiful  uniform.  There  was  far 
more  of  the  soldier  in  his  manner  than  in  General 
Macris's,  but  he  spoke  with  the  same  oriental 
blandness.  He  had  a  hundred  thousand  men,  he 
said,  and  could  go  to  Athens  in  two  weeks  when- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  23 

ever  the  Sultan  gave  the  order.  He  was  chary 
about  giving  further  information  and  about  ex- 
tending privileges  to  a  correspondent  who  had 
come  from  the  Greek  side. 

His  hundred  thousand  men  must  have  been 
rather  crowded  for  sleeping  room  in  the  few 
clusters  of  tents  on  the  hillsides  and  in  the  three 
little  villages  in  the  valley.  I  believe  that  the 
Greeks  had  more  men  mobilized  on  the  frontier 
at  this  time  than  the  Turks.  Edhem  Pasha  had 
had  insurrections,  difficult  transportation,  lack  of 
forage,  and  lack  of  funds  to  deal  with.  By  the 
very  virtue  of  the  size  of  their  country,  of  their 
transport  service,  and  of  the  railroad  to  Larissa, 
the  Greeks  could  have  mobilized  their  forces 
much  quicker  than  the  Turks.  The  time  required 
for  mobilization  in  Turkey  is  a  weakness  which, 
I  think,  has  been  overlooked. 

If  Larissa  was  only  in  part  Turkish,  Elassona 
was  completely  Turkish.  Seen  from  a  distance, 
with  its  white  minarets  and  low,  white  houses,  it 
was  like  most  Macedonian  towns,  quaint,  pictur- 
esque, even  beautiful.  Its  streets  were  beds  of 
filth  lying  on  uneven  cobblestones  to  trip  the 
unwary,  and  sloth  reigned  on  every  doorstep  in 
striking  contrast  to  Volo,  which,  unlike  Larissa, 


24  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

is  a  completely  modern  Greek  town,  almost 
French  in  its  aspect.  The  Greek  at  home  is  still 
an  idler,  but  he  sometimes  leaves  his  hubble- 
bubble  to  make  improvements,  while  the  Turk 
never  does. 

The  Turkish  cavalry  horses  and  all  small  arms 
were  in  good  military  condition.  Uniforms  were 
well  frayed  and  incomplete.  The  soldiers  usu- 
ally answered  our  greetings  with  a  glare ;  but  we 
saw  few  of  them  away  from  their  tents  and  dirty 
barracks,  where  they  lounged  and  grew  strong 
in  keeping  with  the  Turkish  constitution.  It 
was  noticeable  that,  despite  his  deficient  uni- 
form, the  orderly  who  stood  in  front  of  an  offi- 
cer's tent  had  a  natural  military  style  lacking 
in  the  Greek.  This  suggested  much :  a  race  of 
traders  and  peasants  and  a  race  of  soldiers. 

A  mist  settled  down  and  darkness  came  on  as 
we  re-entered  the  pass.  Rain  fell  in  torrents  a  few 
minutes  later  and  we  were  wet  to  the  skin  and 
shivering  when  we  saw  the  light  of  the  Turkish 
watch-house.  The  sub-lieutenant  came  to  meet 
us  with  a  surprisingly  warm  handshake,  his  two 
soldiers  smiling  just  behind  him.  He  insisted 
that  we  should  have  a  glass  of  mastika  before 
going  farther.     Again  we  sat  down  on  the  divan 


Going  to  War  in  Greece.  25 

in  his  little  sitting-room.  The  lines  of  his  face 
came  out  strongly  in  the  shadows  cast  by  the 
lighted  wick  fastened  to  a  cork  which  floated  in 
a  glass  of  olive  oil.  He  was  a  happy  sub-lieuten- 
ant, I  am  sure,  and  he  lived  on  fifteen  cents  a  day. 

"  You  are  an  American  ?  You  came  from  far 
away  ?  "  he  suggested  curiously. 

Then  we  talked  freely,  and  I  learned  that  I 
had  little  cause  to  fear  him,  for  it  was  because  he 
and  his  soldiers  feared  me  that  I  had  been  asked 
to  give  up  my  revolver.  They  knew  of  only  one 
American,  Buffalo  Bill,  and  were  worried  lest  I, 
like  a  treacherous  infidel,  should  suddenly  with 
two  dexterous  movements  kill  both  of  my  escorts 
before  they  could  raise  their  rifles  to  their  shoul- 
ders. 

"  Shall  we  have  war?  "  I  asked  him. 

"I  do  not  know,"  he  said.  '*  It  is  as  our 
Padishah  says.     He  is  our  master." 

"  There  are  many  more  soldiers  in  the  Greek 
watch-house  than  you  have." 

*'  Yes.  I  have  seen  them  in  their  red  caps, 
their  shining  buttons  and  fine  coats.  I  have  seen 
them  dancing  and  heard  them  singing.  They 
laugh  at  us  for  being  ragged.  But  I  tell  you, 
only  swine  show  their  tusks  before  they  bite." 


26  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

**  Don't  you  think  the  Greeks  are  fine  sol- 
diers ?  " 

"  They  are  swine  and  eaters  of  swine.  We 
were  their  masters,  and  they  lived  or  died  as  our 
Padishah  chose.  When  they  rose,  we  put  them 
down  as  easily  as  you  turn  over  your  hand. 
They  are  not  the  great  infidels.  The  great  in- 
fidels (Christian  Europe)  in  their  might  came  to 
take  the  part  of  the  whining  little  pig,  because 
the  little  pig,  the  dishonest  little  pig,  was  also  an 
infidel.  Step  by  step,  we  were  driven  back,  al- 
ways back,  with  our  hands  tied,  and  the  Greek 
swine,  and  their  women,  who  go  with  faces  un- 
covered in  the  street,  cried  in  our  ears,  *  We 
have  conquered  the  Turk  ! '  " 

"  Would  you  like  to  have  a  war  ?  " 

His  black  eyes  gleamed  with  joy,  and  again  he 
replied  :  **  It  is  as  the  Padishah  wills." 

"Would  I  had  food  worthy  to  give  you,"  he 
said  as  I  went  out  into  the  mist  and  the  darkness 
on  my  way  to  the  Greek  watch-house,  leaving 
him  and  his  two  little  soldiers  to  guard  their 
lonely  outpost  up  in  the  clouds,  the  turning- 
point  of  modern  Greek  history.  Five  weeks 
later,  when  the  Turks  came  up  the  pass  in  a  flood 
and   took  the    Greek  watch-house,  the  sub-lieu- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  27 

tenant,  who  was  in  the  front  line  of  the  attack, 
and  one  of  his  soldiers  were  killed  while  fighting 
with  all  courage  and  all  humility  for  their 
false  Prophet  and  false  Padishah.  They  had 
had  a  cup  of  coffee  for  breakfast  that  morning 
and  their  pay  was  several  months  in  arrears. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ENFORCED  absence  from  the  caf^s  for 
three  weeks  never  convinced  my  com- 
panionable escort,  the  lieutenant  of 
cavalry,  that  an  undershirt  was  superior  to  a 
duelling  scar  as  protection,  from  the  damp,  chill 
air  of  the  early  morning  when  we  drove  back 
to  Larissa.  With  tea  and  other  luxuries  from 
a  correspondent's  commissariat  we  improvised 
a  substitute  for  a  caf^  out  of  the  lieutenant's 
bedroom,  which  was  in  a  disconsolate  Hebrew 
money-changer's  four  room  dwelling.  There  as 
well  as  elsewhere  his  friends  might  confound 
the  Turkish  army  and  chat  pleasantly  of  bloody 
battles — battles  which  we  were  careful  to  post- 
pone until  such  a  date  as  the  lieutenant  should 
be  able  to  play  his  part.  It  was  a  plain  case 
of  fever  with  the  lieutenant,  and  his  final  re- 
covery was  wonderful  considering  the  oriental- 
flavored  odor  of  sewage   which  came   in   at  his 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  29 

window  when  the  breezes  did  not  blow  strong 
from  the  sweet-scented  Thessalian  plain.  So  I, 
feeling  that  I  shared  with  the  duelling  scar  the 
responsibility  for  his  illness,  made  bold  to  con- 
sider myself  the  happiest  of  all  those  who  wel- 
comed him,  pale  and  full  bearded,  back  to  the 
cafes  with  oozoo  and  olives,  though  I  was  un- 
equal to  either  the  verbiage  or  the  gesticulations 
of  his  fellow  officers. 

There  were  three  cafes  which  the  officers  pat- 
ronized. All  fronted  on  the  public  square,  two 
of  them  offering  the  attraction  of  cast-off  Parisian 
billiard  tables  with  cubical  balls  that  rattled  over 
their  slates  like  stones  thrown  along  a  pave- 
ment. Old  colonels  sat  in  a  favorite  corner 
smoking  their  hubble-bubbles  and  smiling  affably 
on  all  foreign  correspondents.  A  multitude  of 
doctors  thrown  up  by  an  ambition  born  of  pop- 
ular education,  played  with  the  tassels  on  their 
swords  and  did  not  allow  lack  of  bandages,  of 
stretchers  and  of  hospital  tents  to  ruffle  their 
ever  buoyant  spirits.  The  mayor  buzzed  from 
group  to  group  like  a  busy  bee,  feeling  all  visitors 
to  be  his  guests  and  uttering  the  most  optimistic 
of  prophecies  about  the  reestablishment  of  the 
Byzantine  Empire. 


30  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Still,  he  was  a  practical  executive.  In  my  own 
time  in  Larissa  I  saw  five  new  lamp-posts  put  up 
in  the  square.  A  sixth  lay  by  its  hole  ready  for 
erection — it  may  be  there  now  just  as  the  Greeks 
left  it.  The  mayor  always  bowed  politely  to  the 
Turkish  consul  and  his  friends,  who  ate  unin- 
sulted  at  the  officers'  restaurant  and  were  neither 
molested  nor  taunted  by  the  soldier-children 
whose  elbows  they  rubbed  as  they  passed  through 
the  crowded  streets.  If,  occasionally,  a  Moham-^ 
medan  woman  left  the  Turkish  quarter  she  at- 
tracted no  attention.  Those  contrasting  insignia 
of  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism,  the  mayor's 
derby  hat  and  the  red  fezzes  of  a  bey  and  a 
wealthy  landholder,  both  Turks  and  members 
of  the  Greek  Chamber  of  Deputies,  were  often  to 
be  seen  bobbing  over  the  same  table.  They 
shucked  their  strings  of  beads  and  agreed  that 
Macedonia  under  Greek  rule  meant  more  money 
in  their  pockets.  In  Greece,  I  may  mention, 
officers,  soldiers  and  civilians,  whether  rich  or 
poor,  carry  beads.  "  Our  beads  are  not  for  re- 
ligious purposes,"  you  are  assured  again  and 
again  ;  *'  but  one  who  sits  in  the  cafe  for  hours 
must  have  a  diversion  that  is  neither  difficult 
nor  tiring."      Sometimes  the  strings  break  and 


:>  ,  J     >  J 


J 


The  Turkish  Consul  and  his  friends.' 


If,  occasionally,  a  Mohammedan  woman—" 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  31 

the  beads  scatter,  and  then  an  officer  so  tires 
himself  in  recovering  them  that  only  an  oozoo 
will  revive  him. 

In  the  late  afternoon  we  brought  our  chairs 
out  of  the  cafe  and  under  the  shadows  of  the 
City  Hall.  Then  all  of  idle  Larissa  walked  up 
and  down  in  the  square,  the  wives  of  a  few  offi- 
cers who  had  come  down  from  Athens  adding 
color  to  the  movement  of  the  mayor,  the  Turk- 
ish landholders,  unsophisticated  and  ragged  old 
peasants,  officers,  Evzoni,  Reserves,  Albanian  and 
Macedonian  chieftains  in  starched  fustinella  and 
little  silk  caps  swaggering  as  if  they  had  the 
scalps  of  a  hundred  Turks  at  their  belts,  and  for- 
eign correspondents  in  white  hats,  brown  boots, 
jackets  and  riding-breeches.  Though  officers 
read  and  believed  the  startling  news  on  little 
handbills  sold  for  a  lepta,  they  turned  a  cold 
shoulder  to  the  host  of  Greek  journalists  whom 
they  regarded  as  social  inferiors. 

"  Let  us  see,"  said  an  English  correspondent 
as  he  pored  over  the  Athenian  papers  which 
had  just  arrived.  "  Yesterday  the  Greek  fleet 
sunk  a  Turkish  ship  with  a  single  shot,  ten 
Greeks  scared  a  thousand  Turks  out  of  a  watch- 
house,  and — oh,  if  these  things  were  only  true 


32  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

what  copy  they  would  make  in  these  piping 
times  of  peace  !  " 

When  we  returned  to  London  and  New  York 
we  marveled  even  more  at  the  power  of  the 
Greek  journalist,  for  there  in  the  back  numbers 
of  our  respective  papers  we  saw  all  the  canards 
printed  as  serious  news.  "The  stuff  sent  from 
Athens  is  much  snappier  than  anything  you 
send,"  one  London  editor  cabled  to  a  weary 
correspondent,  who  answered  :  "  Good  Lord  !  I 
don't  wonder  at  it !  "  I  told  little  Volkos  of 
"The  Acropolis"  that  the  Turkish  soldiers,  I 
thought,  were  ill-fed  and  badly  uniformed.  In 
his  paper  he  quoted  me  as  saying  that  the  Turks 
were  naked  and  starving.  "  Why  did  you  put  it 
that  way  ? "  I  asked  him.  "  I  only  made  it 
stronger,"  he  replied  quite  innocently  ;  adding, 
with  a  swing  of  his  hat,  an  enthusiastic,  "  Vive  la 
guerre  !  Toujours  la  conquete  I "  After  fighting 
had  actually  begun  the  Greek  journalists  disap- 
peared. With  the  war  itself  making  news  they 
seemed  to  think  that  they  were  no  longer  needed 
at  the  front. 

The  thriving  shopkeepers  and,  above  all,  the 
keeper  of  a  wine-shop  who  had  chairs  and  a 
greasy  pack  of  cards  to  offer,  were  more  inter- 


"And  ragged  old  peasants." 


"  Albanian  and  Macedonian  chieftains. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  33 

ested  in  the  privates  of  the  army  of  Greece  than 
were  the  officers  who  clanked  their  swords  in  the 
square.  All  the  bakers  and  butchers  believed  in 
unlimited  Hellenic  heroism.  From  the  shep- 
herds* folds  on  the  mountain  side  came  trains  of 
asses  with  carcasses  of  mutton,  followed  by  asses 
laden  with  sheepskins — the  wealth  of  Thessaly — 
and  after  all  a  grim  shepherd,  or  his  little  son. 
Only  the  Hebrew  money-changers,  standing  on 
the  street  corners,  felt  the  ill  wind,  commerce 
across  the  frontier  being  at  a  standstill.  Out  of 
my  window  I  could  see  a  company  of  Reserves 
boiling  their  soup  every  morning,  for  the  army 
of  Greece  was  well  fed.  This  was  all  they  had 
to  do,  and  they  ate  heartily  and  grew  soft  and 
more  and  more  ill  fitted  for  the  hardships  of  an 
active  campaign. 

Almost  every  day  additional  Reserves  came 
along  the  dusty  road  from  the  station.  Then,  to 
make  room  for  the  new  arrivals,  the  company  or 
companies  which  had  been  longest  in  Larissa 
**  being  drilled  "  were  marshaled  in  heavy  march- 
ing order  in  front  of  the  City  Hall.  Their  cloth- 
ing was  evidence  enough  that  the  needles  of 
Athens  could  not  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of 
the   army.     Only   the  cheap  blue  cap  with  the 


34  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

embroidered  cross  seemed  indispensable.  Most 
of  the  men  had  long  military  coats  or  short 
jackets  and  a  smaller  number  the  regulation 
trousers.  Occasionally  a  pair  of  native  shoes 
with  their  turned-up,  tasseled  toes,  were  set  off 
picturesquely  by  a  full  European  uniform.  After 
a  speech  from  the  mayor,  the  men  marched  away 
to  different  points  along  the  frontier,  stopping  at 
intervals  of  a  mile  or  two  to  rest.  Behind  them, 
perhaps,  rattled  a  wagon  loaded  with  bread  and 
cheese. 

Never  was  there  a  gentler  and  more  naive 
soldiery  supplied  with  modern  arms  than  our 
Army  of  the  Caf^.  With  unconscious  ingenu- 
ousness it  excused  in  a  measure  its  lack  of  force- 
fulness  under  fire  by  lacking  force  for  brawls 
and  wickedness  in  general.  Political  discussions 
in  cafes  never  had  bloody  consequences.  The 
only  drunken  man  in  a  uniform  I  ever  saw  in 
Larissa  was  an  Italian  volunteer.  A  battalion 
of  Garibaldians  who  fought  so  bravely  at 
Domoko,  indulged  in  more  private  warfare  than 
our  sixty  thousand — or  fifty  ? — or  forty  thou- 
sand ? — who  knows  ?  Sixty  thousand  when  we 
foresaw  victory  in  brilliant  hues !  Forty  thou- 
sand as   soon    as   we    groped   aimlessly   in    the 


''Chairs  and  a  greasy  pack  of  cards." 


The  wealth  of  Thessaly." 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  35 

chilling    fogs    of    defeat !      Statistics   were    no 
hobby  of  the  Army  of  the  Caf^. 

It  did  not  need  figures  for  the  faith  in  victory 
which  was  as  strong  in  the  soldier-children  as  in 
the  ofificer-children.  Who  was  so  foolish  as  to 
doubt  when  the  barracks  on  the  plain  were  like 
those  in  France  ;  when  wheels  and  pieces  of  iron 
strapped  on  a  donkey's  back  were  transformed 
into  a  mountain  gun  ;  when  there  was  an  en- 
gineer corps  with  white  gaiters  and  a  Red  Cross 
corps,  and  the  doctors  had  swords ;  when  mes- 
sages were  flashed  from  Larissa  to  the  foot  of 
Olympus  by  the  opticon-telegraph  ;  when,  indeed, 
all  of  the  set  parts  of  European  military  organi- 
zation were  imitated  in  one  way  or  another? 
The  War  Department  saw  no  need  of  trying 
to  find  out  if  the  Turks  also  had  such  contriv- 
ances. It  was  impossible  that  they  should  have, 
for  they  were  savages.  They  knew  not  popular 
education.  Their  officers  had  not  studied  in  Paris 
and  Berlin.  The  Army  of  the  Cafe  revelled  in 
the  surprises  that  were  in  store  for  the  Turks 
when  they  faced  modern  implements  of  warfare. 
What  else  could  they  do  but  run  away  like  the 
Chinese  ?  Little  Greece  was  to  slay  her  giant  as 
easily  as  Japan  had  slain  hers. 


36  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

It  was  imitation,  ever  imitation,  the  fatal  gift  of 
the  modern  Greek  who  imitates  too  easily  to  imi- 
tate thoroughly.  Imitation  had  carried  away  our 
officers'  originality.  The  Army  of  the  Cafe  was 
a  European  uniform  without  a  body.  We  had  all 
of  the  imported  properties  without  a  stage  man- 
ager ;  we  had  scenery  and  unmistakably  a  festive 
chorus,  but  our  actors  knew  only  the  lines  of 
their  climaxes,  while  all  contended  for  the  centre 
of  the  stage  in  every  scene,  without  regard  to 
cues.  After  twenty  years  of  preparation  for  the 
struggle  with  Turkey,  their  capacity  for  superfi- 
cial imitation  left  the  staff  with  only  a  small-scale 
Austrian  map  of  their  own  frontier.  The  en- 
gineers, with  the  material  for  making  a  pontoon 
bridge,  built  one  over  the  Peneios  at  the  wrong 
place,  after  waiting  many  days  in  vain  for  the 
river  to  fall  to  a  point  agreeable  to  their  finicky 
minds.  Up  on  the  Acropolis  artillerymen  indif- 
ferently sewed  bags  to  be  filled  with  sand  for  the 
fortifications,  while  others  labored  indifferently 
with  pick  and  shovel  under  the  direction  of  a 
most  sociable  officer.  Weeks  were  taken  to  put 
in  position  the  six  ten-centimetre  Krupps  which 
were  to  sweep  the  plain  and  protect  Larissa  if 
the  Turks    should  break  through  the  mountain 


S  >    '   ■>  1 ' 


''Money  changers  felt  the  ill  wind. 


"  Boiling  their  soud. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  37 

barrier.  Every  morning  Prince  Nicolas,  third 
son  of  King  George,  led  his  battery  out  on  the 
plain  and  put  it  through  evolutions  with  a  certain 
degree  of  snap  that  ought  to  have  been,  but  was 
not,  a  lesson  to  the  rest  of  the  army.  In  all,  we 
were  supposed  to  have  twelve  batteries  of  field 
and  mountain  guns,  and  a  part  of  these,  at  least, 
showed  a  measure  of  mechanical  expertness 
which  was  most  reassuring  compared  to  our  in- 
fantry and  cavalry.  Poor  cavalrymen  !  One  fel- 
low tumbled  off  his  horse  under  the  royal  nose 
on  the  very  day  of  the  Crown  Prince's  arrival  at 
Larissa.  They  had  never  ridden  except  on 
donkeyback,  until  their  Hungarian  horses  were 
imported  after  the  Cretan  ultimatum.  One  day 
they  expected  to  dash  over  the  plain  and  cut 
off  a  multitude  of  Turkish  heads,  though  they 
had  not  been  taught  the  simplest  principles  of 
sabre  practice;  and  the  further  neglect  of  their 
officers  to  teach  them  how  to  care  for  European 
horses  of  itself  had  made  a  charge  impracticable. 
But  when  the  cavalry  made  a  spectator  sad,  he 
could  turn  to  the  Evzoni  who  enlivened  his 
vista  with  all  of  the  brilliance  of  the  Chinese 
embassy  at  a  Washington  reception.  "  Petti- 
coat men  "  these  regulars  who  guarded  the  fron- 


38  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

tier  in  time  of  peace  were  nicknamed  on  account 
of  their  slightly  modified  native  Greek  dress.  The 
"  petticoat  man  "  had  style  and  pride  and  much 
of  the  discipline  which  go  to  make  a  finished 
soldier.  His  red  cap  with  a  long  black  tassel  was 
stuck  jauntily  on  one  side  of  his  closely-cropped 
head.  His  pleated  skirt,  or  fustinella,  was 
always  immaculate  and  well  starched  ;  the  brass 
buttons  on  his  blue  coat  glistened  in  the  sun  ; 
his  light  leggings  were  pulled  well  down  over  his 
ankles — his  virility  disdained  stockings — and  the 
tassels  were  never  missing  from  his  red,  heelless 
shoes  which  scaled  the  mountainside  so  softly. 

"  We  can  always  depend  upon  the  Evzoni  to 
defend  the  throne,"  said  the  Crown  Prince,  who 
received  me  in  the  garden  of  "  the  palace,"  which 
had  been  a  pasha's  house  in  the  old  days.  The 
Crown  Prince's  arrival  at  Larissa  was  supposed  to 
mean  war.  He  was  to  succeed  General  Macris, 
who  had  been  vested  with  absolute  authority 
in  nothing,  such  tyranny  being  inconsistent  with 
the  democratic  principles  of  the  Cafe  de  la  Con- 
stitution. To  the  horror  of  the  French  general 
who  originally  organized  the  army  on  good  lines, 
the  government  gave  equal  authority  to  ten 
colonels,  old   colonels  being  called  generals   by 


"  In  heavy  marching  order." 


"  After  a  speech  from  the  Mayor.' 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  39 

courtesy,  so  that  no  one  of  them  could  be  jealous 
of  the  other.  In  the  face  of  hostilities  the  neces- 
sity of  a  leader  appeared  and  the  easy-going 
King  made  a  commander-in-chief  out  of  his  inex- 
perienced son  who,  nevertheless,  was  not  sup- 
posed to  be  the  master  of  any  one  of  the  colo- 
nels. 

As  day  after  day  went  by  bringing  no  declara- 
tion of  war  the  Crown  Prince  grew  more  and 
more  unpopular.  He  warned  the  soldiers  against 
any  outbreak  on  the  anniversary  of  Greek  inde- 
pendence and  not  a  shot  was  fired.  In  the 
church  at  Larissaon  Independence  Day  the  civil- 
ians and  ofificers  led  by  the  mayor  cried,  at  the 
close  of  a  solemn  memorial  service,  "  Give  us 
war  !  Give  us  war !  "  and  he  rebuffed  them  with  a 
scornful  toss  of  the  head.  Not  a  single  cheer 
greeted  him  as  he  rode  back  to  Headquarters. 
That  evening  these  same  leading  citizens  and 
officers  talked  revolution  in  the  cafes,  while  a  big 
soldier  out  in  the  illuminated  square  gathered  a 
mob  and,  with  light  talk  about  having  war  or 
the  Prince's  head,  led  his  followers  to  the  palace. 
The  band  happened  to  be  at  Headquarters.  A 
patriotic  tune  softened  the  dissatisfied  until  they 
suddenly  saw  its  object,  and  then  they  became 


40  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

positively  menacing.  One  of  the  Crown  Prince's 
aides-de-camp,  with  a  political  future  before  him, 
rushed  out  and  hugged  the  big  soldier  and  told 
him  so  many  fibs  that  he  led  a  cheer  for  the 
Crown  Prince  before  returning  in  self-satisfied 
glory  to  the  square. 

Some  of  the  aides-de-camp  talked  of  improving 
technical  discipline  after  the  Crown  Prince  had 
come,  but  the  Crown  Prince  seemed  to  find  it 
easier  to  allow  the  soldiers  and  the  mass  of  the 
officers  to  have  their  own  way  as  of  old,  while 
his  aides-de-camp  kept  a  sharp  eye  out  for 
delicacies  for  his  table.  The  Army  of  the  Caf6 
chattered  on  and  on,  becoming  less  and  less 
reconciled  to  humdrum  peace. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MY  landlady,  an  enthusiastic  politician  who 
hung  around  my  door  in  lieu  of  her  less 
energetic  husband  to  ask  me  if  I  did 
not  think  that  the  men  who  ruled  Greece  were 
fools,  had  ceased  to  be  entertaining  and  in  gen- 
eral I  had  ceased  to  entertain  her.  At  last  I 
could  have  water  brought  in  an  odd  little  wooden 
tub  without  commotion,  because  Castopis  had 
informed  the  masses  that  I  preferred  to  take  my 
bath  in  seclusion.  Since  the  carpenter  was 
called  in  I  no  longer  had  the  excitement  of  see- 
ing whether  or  not  I  could  wet  my  whole  body 
before  all  the  water  leaked  out  on  to  the  floor, 

Castopis  was  fast  becoming  arrogant.  It  was 
in  vain  that  I  warned  him  not  to  slander  other 
correspondents  norto  tell  the  officers  that  I  had 
a  private  regiment  and  a  battery  of  artillery  com- 
ing from  America  to  aid  the  good  cause.  When 
he  was  not  smoking  a  hubble-bubble  at  the  caf^ 


42  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

he  was  trying  to  start  a  revolution.  He  knew 
that  with  dragomen  scarce  and  war  likely  to  be- 
gin at  any  moment  I  could  not  well  discharge 
him.  Occasionally  he  reassured  me  by  saying, 
"  As  the  great  day  approaches  I  feel  the  spirit  of 
my  noble  ancestors  growing  within  me.  Only 
the  retention  of  my  admiration  for  you  will  keep 
a  rifle  out  of  my  hands." 

Past  also  was  the  joy  of  buying  a  pony.  The 
London  Times  was  the  first  correspondent  to 
buy  one.  He  paid  what  its  owner  asked  for  it, 
the  outrageous  price  of  seven  hundred  drachmas. 
The  next  day  every  correspondent  was  besieged  by 
fellows  in  fustinella  who  would  lead  him  into  an 
alleyway,  and,  pointing  to  a  bag  of  bones,  hold 
out  a  piece  of  paper  with  the  figures  "  700 " 
marked  on  it.  For  a  week  we  discussed  all  of 
the  horseflesh  of  the  surrounding  country  in 
front  of  the  caf6,  and  all  Larissa  gathered  to  look 
on.  By  means  of  a  determined  effort  we  in  part 
repaired  the  damage  done  by  the  guilelessness  of 
the  London  Times,  but  even  then  we  were  so 
easy  that  I  do  not  think  the  Greeks  enjoyed 
beating  us.  When  a  Greek  goes  abroad  he  soon 
becomes  rich.  At  home  where  the  Greeks  argue 
in  a  cafe  over  a  cent  for  many  hours,  no  one  of 


Loaded  with  bread  and  cheese. 


Wheels  and  pieces  of  iron. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  43 

them  can  ever  beat  another  by  sufficient  margin 
to  accumulate  any  amount.  Still,  emigration 
seems  to  remain  an  open  question  with  the 
Greek  because  he  does  not  consider  that  a  for- 
eigner is  worthy  of  his  talent. 

In  two  weeks  I  had  my  own  pony,  Kitso  by 
name,  in  fine  flesh  and  trained  to  a  decent  gait. 
He  had  learned  to  mind  the  rein  instead  of  the 
Greek  substitute,  a  kick  in  the  side.  A  few  re- 
volver shots  close  to  his  ears  had  so  far  redeemed 
him  from  skittishness  that  he  would  go  out  on 
the  plain  in  the  evening  and  listen  to  the  practice 
of  the  Citizen  Defenders  without  moving  a  mus- 
cle. (The  Citizen  Defenders,  led  by  a  fat  mer- 
chant, were  mostly  boys  and  gray-headed  men  of 
Larissa,  and  they  went  out  to  shoot  at  imaginary 
Turks  every  day.) 

All  this  I  had  accomplished  despite  Kitso's 
grooms.  Castopis  said  at  the  start  that  I  must 
have  a  groom,  and  he  hired  several.  Whenever  I 
went  into  the  street  a  number  of  fellows  in 
fustinella  met  me  in  our  little  courtyard  and  held 
out  their  hands  for  a  week's  wages.  When  I  sent 
Castopis  for  a  currycomb,  he  brought  back  a  na- 
tive product  evidently  intended  for  harrowing 
ploughed  ground.     When  I  ordered  Kitso  for  a 


44  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

ride  all  of  my  grooms  gathered  in  front  of  the 
stable  door  and  began  session  as  a  deliberative 
body.  Finally,  I  had  to  spring  through  the 
crowd,  groom  and  saddle  Kitso  myself,  while 
my  following  looked  on  benevolently,  saying  to 
one  another,  "  I  told  you  he  could  do  it !  " 

The  chatter  of  the  cafes  had  begun  to  lose  its 
charm  and  the  odors  of  the  streets  continued  to 
increase  in  virility.  Greasy  mutton  and  potatoes 
boiled  in  grease  all  day  long  pall  on  the  most 
powerful  foreign  stomach.  You  must  not  eat  too 
far  into  your  stores.  At  any  meal  the  emer- 
gency might  arrive  when  you  would  be  depend- 
ent on  them  alone  with  no  facilities  for  laying  in 
further  supplies  from  Athens.  Correspondents 
having  tired  of  going  to  the  one  mosque  in  the 
town  in  searching  for  another  diversion,  after 
elaborate  pulling  of  wires  gained  the  privilege  of 
entering  one  of  the  two  harems  in  Larissa,  and 
there  saw  three  pairs  of  crow-marked  eyes  in  a 
row  above  three  veils.  As  a  body,  they  were  be- 
ginning to  fear  that  they  would  have  to  wait  for- 
ever with  nothing  to  do.  That  is,  the  little  Eng- 
lish speaking  phalanx  of  five  or  six  Englishmen 
and  one  American  were.  Other  foreign  nation- 
alities had  come  and  had  gone,  while  the  Anglo- 


3      '     D     >   1   5      3 


"  Messages  flashed  to  the  foot  of  Olympus. 


Sewed  bags  to  be  filled  with  sand. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  45 

Saxon  phalanx  remained  firm — not  because  the 
editor  of  the  local  paper  told  us  we  should  cer- 
tainly have  war,  but  rather  out  of  pure  bull- 
headedness.  If  all  the  turbulence  of  the  caf^s 
should  end  in  peace,  we  must  return  to  Athens 
with  our  equipments  and  uneaten  stores,  a  little 
crestfallen;  a  little  disappointed. 

The  editor  of  the  local  paper  had  the  appear- 
ance of  a  prophet  and  perhaps  he  was  one. 
He  wore  a  white  hat,  a  green  vest,  and  panta- 
loons with  a  wide  stripe.  He  preached  vigor- 
ously to  us  of  the  stupidity  of  the  Erasmian 
pronunciation  of  Greek  which  foreigners  learn  at 
school.  But  we  could  not  help  liking  him  when 
he  laid  his  cane  on  the  caf^  table,  and,  remov- 
ing his  hat  and  wiping  his  head  with  a  huge 
red  handkerchief,  said  :  "  Gentlemen,  the  news ! 
What  is  the  news?  Since  we  have  no  news, 
what  shall  we  drink  to  the  conquest  of  Turkey 
which  is  written  on  the  wall?  Do  not  ques- 
tion me  about  the  information  which  I  publish 
on  handbills  for  a  lepta !  There  are  secrets 
in  our  profession  as  well  as  in  others,  gentle- 
men." 

Kitso  and  I  had  visited  every  station  from  the 
Vale  of  Tempe  to  Ravenni.     We  started  on  our 


46  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

journeys  early  in  the  morning,  and  long  before 
the  noonday  sun  was  shining  down  in  uncom- 
fortable splendor  he  was  in  some  rude  enclosure 
enjoying  the  sack  of  barley  which  he  had  brought 
on  his  back  and  I  was  drinking  bitter  resinato 
wine  and  eating  mutton  with  the  officers  of  the 
post.  After  luncheon  some  of  the  older  officers, 
following  an  old  superstition  of  Greek  brigands, 
looked  through  the  shoulder-blade  of  the  lamb 
we  had  eaten  for  signs  of  a  fight,  and,  needless 
to  say,  found  them  as  usual.  At  three  or  four 
o'clock,  when  the  heat  had  somewhat  abated,  the 
commander  of  the  post  took  me  out  to  see  his 
men,  the  lay  of  the  land,  his  battery,  or  what- 
ever he  had  to  show  to  visitors;  asking  with 
naive  interest,  "  Are  you  content  ?  Have  we 
not  things  like  the  Europeans?  Are  we  not 
quite  different  from  the  Turk  ? "  but  always 
speaking  of  himself  as  an  oriental.  It  was  well 
to  be  content,  thoroughly  content,  lest  you  be 
misunderstood.  Once  I  said:  "Yes,  you  are. 
Bravo  !  But  I  wish  you  had  more  artillery." 
"  Oh,  then,"  was  the  quick  reply,  "  you  are  op- 
posed to  the  cause  of  Greece  !  "  In  vain  did  I 
endeavor  to  explain  that  my  anxiety  was  only 
a  result  of    my  Phil-Hellenic  sympathies.     The 


"With  pick  and  shovel." 


"  Which  had  been  a  Pasha's  house. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  47 

officer  could  not  see  the  difference  between 
friendly  criticism  and  condemnation. 

In  the  cool  of  the  evening  Kitso  and  I  jogged 
back  home,  he  thinking  of  the  barley  in  his 
stable  and  I  enjoying  the  sunset  on  Olympus. 
Kitso  had  never  had  big  rations  before,  and  some- 
times I  thought  that  I  saw  a  broad  grin  on  his 
face.  When  there  were  no  more  frontier  posts 
to  visit  we  rode  from  village  to  village  and  from 
shepherd's  fold  to  shepherd's  fold  in  the  late  af- 
ternoon, like  the  lords  of  olden  times  inspecting 
their  property.  We  saw  women  sitting  in  the 
doorways  of  squat  little  houses,  plodding  shep- 
herds crook  in  hand,  shepherds'  sons  gazing  awe- 
struck at  the  movement  of  a  battery,  and  ugly 
shepherds'  dogs  which  gave  chase  whenever  their 
masters  were  out  of  sight,  nipping  at  the  heels 
of  my  boots  and  making  Kitso  dash  across  the 
fields  like  mad.  The  peasants  sometimes  stopped 
us  at  the  folds  and  offered  us  sheep's  milk  to 
drink,  which  is  much  better  than  the  strong-tast- 
ing milk  of  the  occasional  cow  that  leads  a 
dreary,  hampered  existence  in  Greece. 

Mornings  were  the  dreamiest  part  of  the  whole 
day.  You  might  try  to  write,  you  might  sprinkle 
your  couch  with  Keating's  powder  and  lie  down 


48  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

to  read  ;  whatever  you  did  you  eventually  drifted 
out  to  the  cafes. 

It  was  while  lounging  thus  that  Dumlos  came 
my  way.  He  was  a  tall,  lean  Macedonian,  with 
deviltry  written  on  his  ragged  outfit,  in  his  coun- 
tenance and  in  his  manner  of  rolling  a  cigarette. 
At  the  moment  that  Castopis  introduced  him  to 
me  as  a  miracle-worker  who  had  killed  a  hundred 
Turks,  Dumlos  was  gesticulating  over  a  cafe 
table  to  the  mayor  and  a  fat  Greek  merchant 
from  Constantinople. 

"Thou  art  witness,  O  worthy  Mayor,  that  I 
am  no  lamb  to  wear  tinkle  bells  and  eat  grass," 
Dumlos  said.  "  Did  I  learn  all  the  paths  of  the 
mountains  to  wear  trousers,  to  put  my  gun  up 
and  put  it  down  again  at  the  word  of  some  city 
officer  ?  My  band  is  waiting.  It  is  hungry  and 
it  needs  clothes  and  arms.  Should  I  go  to  the 
Pasha  for  these  or  to  you,  O  worthy  Mayor? 
Thou  knowest  that  every  man  of  my  men  will 
kill  his  hundred  Turks  and  I  will  kill  my  thou- 
sand, or  else  Dumlos  is  dirt  under  your  feet. 
He  will  turn  brigand  on  Olympus,  and  that 
would  be  worse  for  Dumlos  than  going  to  hell. 

**  My  blood  leapt  in  my  veins  when  I  heard 
that  thou  wert  to  make  war,  O  worthy  Mayor. 


The  Citizen  Defenders. 


"  Gazing,  awe-struck." 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  49 

Straightway,  I  got  all  the  good  men  and  true  to- 
gether under  the  Pasha's  nose.  Be  thou  my  wit- 
ness that  I  had  just  won  the  last  brave  man  in 
the  region  to  my  band,  and  he  had  run  away 
with  the  others  to  the  mountains  to  come  to  thy 
aid,  when  I  turned  around  in  the  village  street  to 
look  into  ten  rifle  barrels.  It  is  plain,  O  worthy 
Mayor,  that  mine  enemies  feared  me  too  much 
to  try  to  take  me  face  to  face. 

" '  Thou  art  wanted  by  the  Pasha,'  said  their 
leader,  trembling  at  the  sight  of  me. 

"  My  words  were  like  honey,  worthy  Mayor. 
'  Let  us  hasten,'  I  said.  '  I  die  waiting  to  be  of 
service  to  my  worthy  master.' 

''Alas!  The  Pasha  saw  in  me  one  to  whom 
he  had  unexpectedly  loaned  a  little  money  on  a 
dark  night.  For  what  can  an  honest  Greek  under 
a  Pasha  do  except  to  live  the  life  of  a  free  man  in 
the  mountains  ? 

"  *  I  recognize  thee  !  Thou  art  a  villain  ! ' 
cried  the  Pasha. 

"  '  Nay,  thou  art  mistaken,  my  lord.  It  tvas 
my  brother,  who  resembles  me  much,  that  robbed 
you,'  I  replied. 

"  '  Then  I  have  taken  only  one  of  two  villains  ! ' 
he  said. 


50  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

*' '  Nay,  nay,  worthy  ruler,'  I  replied,  '  kill  thy 
slave  if  thou  wilt,  but  I  have  not  two  brothers/ 

**The  squatting  infidel  smiled  and  sent  five 
infidel  hirelings  away  with  me  to  the  mountain 
side,  where  they  need  not  bend  their  backs  to 
make  a  hole  for  my  carcass. 

"  *  Thy  will  is  my  pleasure,  O  master !  *  I  said. 

"And  I  thought:  *  Dumlos,  thou  art  a  wise 
man,  and  a  wise  man  is  worth  more  than  five 
fools ! ' 

'*  So,  as  we  were  going  to  the  mountains,  I 
stumbled  on  a  stone  and  fell. 

"  *  I  have  broken  my  limb  and  cannot  rise ! '  I 
said. 

"  '  Up,  you  infidel ! '  cried  the  hirelings,  and 
seized  hold  of  me. 

"  A  good  Mohammedan  must  obey  his  masters, 
must  he  not,  O  worthy  Mayor? 

"  *  Poor,  wounded  Dumlos,  you  must  rise 
though  it  kills  thee,'  I  thought. 

*'  I  sprang  up  with  all  my  might,  so  obedient 
wa's  I.  So  suddenly  did  I  rise  that  his  rifle  flew 
out  of  one  of  the  infidel's  hands  into  mine.  I 
sent  a  bayonet  through  the  throat  of  the  one  on 
the  right  and  a  bayonet  through  the  heart  of  the 
one  on  the  left.     The  others  fired  at  me.     But, 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  51 

O  worthy  Mayor,  Dumlos  did  not  drink  his 
mother's  milk  for  nothing!  I  lifted  up  their 
rifle  barrels,  thus,  and  their  bullets  passed  over 
my  head,  while  I  bayoneted  both  of  them. 

"  '  Ah,  Dumlos,'  I  thought,  *  the  Pasha  is  un- 
kind. He  gives  thee  too  small  a  guard.  Thou 
hast  no  chance  to  show  thy  talents.' 

*'The  infidel  whose  gun  I  had  taken  ran  away, 
wailing  in  fright  like  a  lamb  strayed  from  the 
fold. 

"  ♦  'Tis  well ! '  I  thought.  '  I  will  not  kill  him, 
but  make  him  prisoner,  and  take  him  as  a  gift  to 
the  worthy  mayor.' 

"  I  ran  after  him,  gaining  on  him.  Bullets  be- 
gan to  whistle  about  my  ears,  and  I  saw  that  five 
more  of  the  infidels  were  following  me. 

"  '  It  is  too  bad,  too  bad  !  '  I  thought.  *  I  can 
take  no  gift  to  the  worthy  mayor.* 

"  Then  with  six  bullets  I  killed  the  remaining 
six  of  mine  enemies.  Only  ten  altogether,  I 
know,  worthy  Mayor ;  but  there  were  no  more. 
And  then  I  came  to  thee  who  art  brave  and 
great-minded,  O  worthy  Mayor,  to  ask  thee  and 
thy  great  friend,  the  mighty  merchant  of  Con- 
stantinople, not  to  let  my  loyal  band  go  hungry 
and  die  of  sorrow  for  the  want  of  cartridges." 


52  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

So  moved  was  the  Greek  merchant  that  he 
gave  Dumlos  a  huge  package  of  Greek  paper 
money  on  the  spot. 

**  You  will  not  know  me  in  an  hour,"  said 
Dumlos. 

He  hurried  away  to  the  shops  and  returned 
most  unconventionally  swagger  in  a  silk  cap, 
new  tasseled  shoes,  milk-white  fustinella,  em- 
broidered jacket,  and  wearing  an  old-fashioned 
Greek  sword  in  a  battered,  brass  scabbard. 

The  Greek  merchant  was  one  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Greek  Ethnike  Haeteria  Society 
at  the  front.  Like  the  National  Society,  the 
Ethnike  Haeteria  labored  for  the  extension  of 
the  Hellenic  Kingdom,  but  by  more  radical 
methods.  The  National  Society  footed  most  of 
the  bills  for  the  regulation  preparations  for  war. 
It  was  composed  of  well-to-do  Greek  merchants 
in  all  parts  of  the  world  who  were  willing  to 
spend  their  money  on  the  homeland  with  a  rash- 
ness that  was  in  striking  contrast  to  their  busi- 
ness habits. 

Many  of  these  merchants  were  members  of 
both  societies.  The  Ethniki  Haeteria  was  a 
secret  organization,  supposed  to  be  an  adjunct 
of   the    National    Society,  whose   cardinal    faith 


You  will  not  know  me  in  an  hour,'  Dumlos  said." 


The  big,  bearded  child  who  acted  as  his  lieutenant.' 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  53 

was  an  offensive  war  at  all  hazards.  The  di- 
rectors, shrewd,  self-made  traders  of  the  most 
cosmopolitan  kind  who  had  haggled  over  prices 
in  all  parts  of  the  world,  with  pathetic  guileless- 
ness  accepted  the  word  of  the  untrained  Dum- 
loses  that  they  could  cut  an  orange  off  a  tree 
with  a  rifle  shot  at  a  distance  of  a  thousand 
yards  and  vanquish  ten  times  their  number  of 
Turks. 

"  When  the  Greek  sets  out  to  become  a 
trader,"  said  one  of  the  merchants,  ''  he  becomes 
the  greatest  of  traders ;  and  when  he  sets  out  to 
become  a  fighter  he  becomes  the  greatest  of 
fighters."  It  did  not  occur  to  him  that  the 
Greek  gift  for  talk  so  needful  in  the  mart  was 
quite  useless  on  the  battlefield.  If  you  suggested 
to  him  that  Greece  had  prejudiced  herself  in  the 
eyes  of  Europe  by  defaulting  the  interest  on  her 
national  debt,  he  would  reply  in  a  burst  of  anger  : 
"  What  matters  a  country's  debts  when  a  coun- 
try's honor  is  at  stake?" 

The  plans  of  the  Ethnike  Haeteria  were  mag- 
nificent. Two  or  three  hundred  Dumloses  were 
to  arm  ten  thousand  of  the  Greek  population 
over  the  frontier  in  Macedonia  and  Epirus. 
Other  Dumloses  were  to  organize  five  thousand 


54  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Irregulars  in  Greek  territory  and  when  these 
crossed  the  frontier  the  ten  thousand  were  to 
rise  and  join  them  in  excursions  from  mountain 
fastnesses  to  harass  the  flank  and  the  rear  of  the 
Turkish  army.  Kalabaka  in  the  mountains  at 
the  terminus  of  a  branch  of  the  Thessalian  railway 
was  the  rendezvous  of  the  Irregulars  and  at 
Kalabaka  Dumlos's  band  of  braves  awaited  him. 
At  the  time  of  my  meeting  with  Dumlos  I  had 
just  heard  the  news  that  the  first  division  of  Ir- 
regulars had  crossed  the  frontier  at  an  unguarded 
point  in  the  early  morning,  had  taken  two 
Turkish  stations,  and  was  still  moving  on  victo- 
riously. Here,  at  least,  was  an  opportunity  to 
see  some  action,  and  I  concluded  to  accept 
Dumlos's  invitation  to  go  to  Kalabaka  and  then, 
perhaps,  across  the  frontier  with  the  second  di- 
vision of  Irregulars.  Kalabaka  was  a  short  two 
days*  journey  distant  on  horseback.  At  Trik- 
kala,  where  we  halted  over  night,  we  heard  an 
indefinite  rumor  that  the  Irregulars  had  encoun- 
tered opposition.  On  our  way  from  Trikkala  to 
Kalabaka  the  next  morning  we  met  straggling 
figures  with  rifles.  From  them  we  learned  that  a 
thousand  Irregulars  in  fine  new  petticoats  and 
carrying  the  outrageous  weight  of  two  hundred 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  55 

and  fifty  cartridges  each  had,  indeed,  taken  two 
Turkish  stations  garrisoned  with  perhaps  a  dozen 
soldiers,  and  then,  after  going  without  food  for 
thirty-six  hours,  had  met  a  Turkish  company  and 
had  scattered,  each  Hmp  petticoat  returning  to 
Greek  soil  as  best  it  might. 

Either  the  Greeks  over  the  frontier  were  satis- 
fied with  Turkish  rule  or  else  they  considered 
rebellion  impracticable.  Not  one  of  the  Dum- 
loses  who  had  gone  to  Macedonia  and  Epirus 
with  the  Haeteria's  money  in  their  pockets 
materialized  at  the  critical  moment,  and  the 
Greek  peasants  even  refused  to  give  the  invaders 
bread. 

Dumlos  was  waiting  for  us  under  the  shade  of 
a  mulberry  grove  just  out  of  Kalabaka.  With 
him  were  his  men,  some  forty  in  number,  looking 
as  swagger  as  himself. 

"  I  made  them  out  of  nothing,"  Dumlos  ex- 
plained. "  They  came  to  me  hungry  and  were  fed. 
They  came  to  me  ragged  and  were  clothed.  Then 
I  gave  them  fine  rifles  and  wrapped  a  bandolier  of 
cartridges  around  their  loins  and  threw  one  over 
each  shoulder — and  they  were  men  !  You  shall 
see  how  bravely  we  can  march  up  to  the  caf^." 

Saying,  "  Come  on,  my  heroes!  "  he  started  off 


56  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

with  his  breast  puffed  out  like  a  pouter  pigeon's, 
but  not  one  of  his  followers  stirred.  The  big, 
bearded  child  who  acted  as  his  lieutenant  said 
that  they  had  concluded  not  to  march  unless  they 
received  three  leptas  apiece. 

"  True  Greeks !  "  observed  Castopis. 

The  bribe  being  produced  from  under  Dumlos's 
jacket,  Dumlos  and  his  men  went  up  the  path 
out  of  step  with  the  pomposity  of  comic  opera 
villains. 

Kalabaka  proved  to  be  quite  the  filthiest  of  all 
the  Greek  towns  I  had  yet  visited.  Castopis 
found  an  odorous  little  room  for  me  over  the 
restaurant  and  a  stable  for  Kitso  near  the  public 
well  where  the  whole  town  drew  its  drinking 
water.  As  Dumlos's  guest,  I  ate  with  him  in  the 
restaurant.  The  Greeks  consider  the  head  the 
choicest  part  of  a  lamb  and  the  eye  the  choicest 
morsel  of  the  head.  Having  good  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  Dumlos  shunned  the  wash-basin  day 
after  day,  I  never  had  the  courage  to  look  at  his 
hands  as  he  tore  a  lamb's  head  to  pieces  or 
gouged  out  an  eye  with  his  forefinger  and  offered 
it  to  me  with  a  smile  of  satisfied  self-sacrifice. 

Dumlos  was  expecting  orders  to  start  with  his 
band  for   the   frontier  at  any   hour   and   I  had 


'  )      5 


"I  made  them  out  of  nothing. 


A  stable  for  Kitso  near  the  public  well." 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  57 

already  partly  promised  to  go  with  him.  Four 
days  passed  and  still  he  and  his  men  were  loung- 
ing about  Kalabaka.  His  money  was  fast  going. 
Only  by  bribes  was  he  able  to  keep  his  band 
together.  They  were  wasting  their  cartridges 
shooting  at  rocks  and  the  insulators  on  Govern- 
ment telegraph  wires,  and  their  general  conduct 
was  becoming  worse  and  worse. 

The  captain  of  the  unsuccessful  band  which 
took  two  Turkish  stations  and  then  remembered 
that  he  had  no  commissariat,  came  down  the 
mountain  side  one  afternoon  with  three  fol- 
lowers, his  fustinella  brown  with  dirt,  and  all 
Kalabaka  gathered  around  him  in  the  caf^  to 
hear  his  explanation.  He  drank  a  coffee  and 
rolled  a  cigarette  and  said  he  came  back  not  on 
account  of  Turkish  opposition,  but  because  he 
found  that  there  were  several  cowards  in  his 
band.  He  had  concluded  to  weed  out  these 
and  then  start  afresh  for  Constantinople.  The 
merchants  believed  him  and  continued  their  prep- 
arations for  another  raid.  The  police  officer  in 
charge  at  Kalabaka  told  me  that  the  government 
was  not  cognizant  of  the  raid.  In  the  next  breath 
he  said  he  was  going  to  requisition  the  rifles 
of   all   the    Irregulars  who  had  shown  the  white 


58  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

feather  across  the  frontier,  inasmuch  as  they 
were  enemies  of  order.  There  were  sage  dis- 
cussions of  strategy  out  on  the  slope  beyond 
the  cafe,  in  which  the  merchants,  the  petticoat 
chieftains,  and  sometimes  the  police  officer  him- 
self took  part.  Dumlos  always  returned  from 
these  discussions  saying,  "  We  shall  go  to-mor- 
row! " 

A  visit  to  the  monks  who  dwell  on  the  sum- 
mits of  the  sugar-loaf  rocks  which  overhang  the 
town  of  Kalabaka  was  a  pleasant  diversion  while 
awaiting  a  turn  of  events.  It  was  a  long  trudge 
up  the  mountain  path  before  we  reached  the 
grateful  shade  of  a  little  chasm  at  the  doorstep 
of  the  largest  monastery.  Our  eyes  followed  a 
heavy,  dangling  rope  up  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
to  an  opening  in  a  ramshackle,  old  stone  build- 
ing which  seemed  to  have  grown  upon  the  rock 
like  a  toadstool  out  of  a  fallen  tree.  In  answer 
to  our  calls  a  little  white  head  with  a  little  white 
beard  was  thrust  out  of  the  window  of  its  house 
up  in  the  clouds. 

"  What  do  you  want  ? "  cried  a  distant, 
squeaky  little  voice. 

"  We  want  to  come  up  and  pay  our  respects," 
we  cried  back. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  59 

'*  The  walking  is  not  good,"  said  the  squeaky- 
little  voice.     "  We'll  have  to  pull  you  up." 

A  net  was  lowered  and  a  young  monk  came 
down  a  hanging  ladder  to  gather  strands  of  the 
net  about  us  and  fasten  them  to  the  rope.  A 
windlass  creaked  up  in  the  clouds,  the  meshes  of 
the  net  began  to  draw  tightly  on  our  flesh,  and 
we  were  lifted  from  the  great  rock  on  which  we 
had  been  sitting.  At  a  height  of  fifty  feet  the 
windlass  gave  an  unusually  loud  creak  and  we 
shot  down — but  only  for  a  foot.  Then  we 
stopped  with  an  uncomfortable,  but   a  grateful,  \ 

chug.  I  was  so  fast  bound  that  I  could  not  look 
up,  but  I  imagined  the  white-bearded  little  man 
was  grinning  over  his  favorite  joke. 

When  we  were  swung  in  at  the  door  by  half  a 
dozen  strong  hands,  landing  in  an  undignified 
sprawl  on  the  floor,  I  looked  up  to  see  that  the 
white-bearded  little  man  was  the  tall  Father 
Superior.  He  took  us  at  once  to  the  contribu- 
tion box,  inside  of  the  church  which  had  been 
crudely  Italian  three  hundred  years  ago.  In  the 
Middle  Ages,  years  of  labor  and  infinite  patience 
built  the  monasteries  of  Meteora  to  be  secure 
from  assault.  To  this  day  the  ladder  is  always 
pulled    up  when  a   monk  ascends   or   descends. 


6o  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Now  only  three  of  the  monasteries  are  occupied 
and  nothing  is  done  to  keep  even  these  from 
going  to  ruin.  The  largest  one  has  pasturage 
for  a  few  sheep.  From  eight  to  a  dozen  monks 
live  there,  enjoying  the  laziest  of  existences  in 
buildings  with  room  for  a  hundred.  That  good 
churchman,  the  Father  Superior,  said  that  he 
preferred  Turkish  to  Grecian  rule ;  for  the 
Turks  allowed  them  all  the  income  from  the 
monastic  estates,  whereas  the  Greek  government 
took  a  portion  of  it.  The  Father  Superior  made 
a  quaint  figure  as  he  walked  about  the  little 
court ;  but  the  oldest  of  the  monks,  wrinkled 
and  bent  Pothakes,  at  ninety  was  even  more 
quaint.  In  the  summer  time  Pothakes  sits  from 
sunrise  to  sunset  under  a  flowering  tree,  and  he 
moves  only  with  its  shadow. 

The  next  day  Dumlos  received  orders  to  start, 
and  at  almost  the  same  moment  I  received  def- 
inite news  that  the  war  had  begun  in  earnest. 
While  Kitso  was  being  saddled  I  walked  with 
Dumlos  and  his  band  to  the  edge  of  the  village, 
whence  they  started  off  gaily  on  a  full  stomach 
to  make  war  without  a  commissariat.  He  threw 
his  arms  around  my  neck  suddenly  and  kissed 
me,  and  I  believe  there  were  tears  in  the  great 


"Seemed  to  have  grown  upon  the  rock." 


"  The  Father  Superior.' 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  6i 

child's  eyes.  After  I  had  wet  my  handkerchief 
at  the  well  and  wiped  my  face  I  tried  to  forgive 
him. 

I  rode  with  all  haste  to  Trikkala,  where  I 
found  officers  mounting  the  tables  in  cafes  to 
read  bulletins  of  victories.  I  left  Castopis  to 
bring  tired  Kitso  on  in  the  early  morning,  while 
I  was  crowded  into  a  rambling  old  carriage  with 
officers  hurrying  to  different  stations  along  the 
frontier.  Thus  we  hoped  to  be  on  hand  for  a 
promised  battle  the  next  day.  But  the  carriage 
broke  down  after  going  at  a  snail's  pace  all  night 
and  I  was  forced  to  walk  until  late  in  the  after- 
noon before  I  arrived  at  Ravenni,  just  after  the 
last  gun  of  an  unimportant  artillery  fusillade  had 
been  fired. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

AT  last  the  Turks  made  war,  the  Sultan  as- 
suming not  the  annexation  of  Crete  but 
the  raid  of  the  Irregulars  as  a  direct  rea- 
son for  asserting  his  dignity.  M.  Delyannis,  the 
Greek  prime  minister,  had  invited  his  rabid 
countrymen  to  laugh  with  him  when  he  asked  the 
Turkish  ambassador  at  Athens,  "  How  can  you 
expect  us  to  do  better  than  your  whole  army? 
Has  it  not  failed  to  keep  the  Irregulars  out  of 
Turkey  ?  "  The  ambassador  replied  meekly  that 
he  could  not  consider  this  answer  an  explanation 
of  the  worst  possible  violation  of  international 
amity,  much  less  a  guarantee  that  such  a  viola- 
tion would  not  be  repeated  ;  and  accordingly 
with  the  politest  of  bows  he  withdrew  from 
Athens. 

While  preparing  for  war  the  Sultan  had  wel- 
comed such  incidents  as  would  hold  the  blood- 
thirsty Turk  up  to  European  gaze  as  a  martyr 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  63 

who  had  borne  uncomplainingly  ever-increasing 
wrongs  inflicted  by  the  violent  Greek.  When  his 
preparations  were  complete  the  raid  of  the  Ir- 
regulars pleasantly  surprised  him  with  the  finest 
of  excuses  for  action.  Even  then  the  first  contact 
of  Turkish  and  Greek  regular  troops  was  so 
managed  as  to  make  the  Greeks  the  offenders. 
On  Saturday,  April  i/th,  the  Turks  moved  for- 
ward on  to  some  neutral  ground  at  the  frontier 
station  of  Analipsis,  whereupon  the  Greeks  fired 
upon  them  and  they  retreated,  leaving  the  con- 
tested position  to  be  occupied  temporarily  by 
their  enemy. 

From  first  to  last,  indeed,  events  had  played 
into  the  Sultan's  cunning  hands.  Incensed  by 
the  invasion  of  the  Irregulars,  the  Turkish  sol- 
diers were  chafing  for  their  prey  like  hounds  in 
leash.  Already  the  Greek  peasant  Reserves,  who 
like  something  new  as  well  as  the  Athenian, 
ancient  or  modern,  had  become  a  little  tired  of 
the  business  of  soldiering.  Without  increasing 
in  numbers  the  Army  of  the  Cafe  had  idled  and 
grown  flabby.  Its  officers  who  had  shouted 
"  Vive  la  guerre  I  Toute  Varmee  est  prete  pour  le 
combat^'  found  themselves  dumfounded  and  not 
prepared  at  all  in    the    actual   presence  of   war. 


64  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Our  Headquarters  Staff  knew  nothing  about  the 
disposition  of  the  Turkish  forces  and  were  hazy 
about  the  disposition  of  their  own.  The  Crown 
Prince  having  no  plan  of  campaign,  either  of  de- 
fense or  of  offense,  Edhem  Pasha  was  kind  enough 
to  make  one  for  him. 

Any  invasion  of  Greek  territory  must  be  by 
one  of  three  passes :  that  of  Ravenni,  some  fif- 
teen miles  to  the  west  of  Larissa ;  of  Meluna, 
some  ten  miles  almost  directly  north  of  Larissa  ; 
and  of  Nezero,  some  eight  miles  to  the  south 
and  six  miles  to  the  east  of  Larissa  through  the 
Vale  of  Tempe.  Ravenni  being  the  most  open, 
the  Greek  commanders  could  not  believe  that 
Edhem  Pasha  would  attempt  to  come  through  by 
either  of  the  other  passes.  Accordingly,  without 
watching  the  movements  of  the  enemy's  troops 
with  a  view  to  learning  his  point  of  concentra- 
tion, they  placed  the  flower  of  the  Greek  artillery 
at  Ravenni  under  the  direction  of  Colonel  Smol- 
lenske,  the  ablest  Greek  artillery  officer.  That 
only  a  sub-lieutenant  and  two  soldiers  had  been 
in  the  Turkish  watch-house  at  Meluna  Pass  for 
two  months  seemed  to  convince  the  Greeks  of 
the  superfluity  of  a  strong  Greek  force  there. 

When  I  arrived  at  the  little  cluster  of  tents  in 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  65 

the  mouth  of  the  valley  which  sheltered  Colonel 
SmoUenske,  his  officers,  and  such  of  his  men  as 
there  was  room  for,  I  learned  that  all  of  the  news 
thus  far  received  by  him  was  favorable.  The 
whole  frontier  from  Ravenni  to  Nezero  had 
gradually  blazed  up  after  the  first  shots  at  An- 
alipsis  on  Saturday,  until  by  Monday  all  was  in  a 
flame  ;  a  leisurely,  oriental  flame.  The  opposing 
sides  had  lain  behind  ridges  or  in  their  watch- 
houses  and  fired  intermittently  at  each  other 
with  slight  losses.  We  had  taken  a  few  watch- 
houses  and  here  and  there  had  gained  more  little 
points  of  vantage  than  the  Turks — unless  no 
news  from  Meluna  Pass  was  bad  news.  The 
possibilities  of  a  Meluna  Pass  without  any  news 
was  so  attractive  that,  tired  and  sleepy  as  I  was, 
I  was  inclined  to  set  out  for  Meluna  that  night. 
But  I  accepted  Colonel  SmoUenske's  offer  of  a 
blanket  in  his  tent  and  a  share  of  his  dinner  of 
mutton,  eggs  and  one  orange. 

"  You  need  not  worry,"  he  said  in  his  clear, 
cheery  voice.  '*  You  will  see  some  fighting  to- 
morrow. Our  friends  of  the  Turkish  artillery 
always  begin  firing  at  sunrise.  This  has  been 
their  practice  for  centuries,  I  am  told,  and  I  sup- 
pose that  their  intention  is  to  take  the  enemy  by 


66  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

surprise.  Be  assured  that  the  noise  of  their  guns 
will  awaken  you  in  the  morning,  and  I  trust  that 
any  accidents  which  may  befall  you  will  be  as 
amusing  and  as  harmless  as  the  experience  of 
General  Mavromichalis  and  his  staff  yesterday. 
A  shell  struck  a  tumbledown  shepherd's  hut 
which  the  general  was  passing  and  knocked  most 
of  the  mud  roof  on  to  the  heads  of  himself  and 
staff,  without  doing  them  the  slightest  injury." 

As  we  ate  and  as  we  chatted  over  our  coffee, 
orderlies  and  staff  officers  were  constantly  com- 
ing in  and  the  colonel  gave  orders  to  them  with 
a  directness  and  self-confidence  noticeably  lack- 
ing in  most  Greek  officers  of  high  rank. 

Quite  in  keeping  with  the  colonel's  prophecy, 
I  was  awakened  at  four  o'clock  the  next  morning 
by  the  booming  of  guns  in  the  distance.  Flashes 
of  fire  five  miles  away,  high  up  on  our  left, 
showed  the  position  of  the  Turkish  guns,  and  for 
all  I  could  see  oriental  precedent  was  hammer- 
ing away  aimlessly  at  the  cold  mist  which  hid  the 
Greek  positions  in  the  valley.  I  started  toward 
the  Turkish  battery  along  the  slopes  at  the  left 
which  Kitso  and  I  had  traversed  only  a  few  days 
before.  In  half  an  hour  the  mist  had  lifted  and 
our  positions  were  visible.     The  redoubt  of  Vigli 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  67 

where  the  Turkish  Krupps  were  placed  was  a 
high,  rocky  mountain  spur.  Our  own  field  guns 
were  skilfully  distributed  over  the  plains  and  out- 
numbered the  guns  on  Vigli,  though  inferior  to 
them  in  calibre.  Soon  we  responded  to  the  early 
salutation  of  the  enemy  and  immediately  the 
fire  grew  brisk  on  both  sides.  Sometimes  the 
Turks  seemed  to  be  aiming  at  our  batteries,  and 
again  they  shot  quite  at  random. 

I  had  thought  myself  quite  out  of  the  line  of 
fire  when  two  half-spent  five-inch  shells,  black 
streaks  ricochetting  over  the  ground,  almost 
jumped  into  my  pocket.  A  moment  later  a 
time  shell  burst  well  over  my  head,  though  there 
was  nothing  within  fifty  rods  of  me  except  some 
orderlies  and  water  carriers.  Going  out  into  the 
nearest  Greek  battery,  I  found  the  gunners  work- 
ing snappily,  while  the  officers  exchanged  jokes, 
and  everybody  cheered  when  a  Greek  shell 
landed  well.  In  answer  there  came  a  hoarse 
yell  from  the  Turkish  gunners  hidden  behind  the 
gray  rocks  of  Vigli  who  threw  shells  all  about  us 
but  never  put  one  into  our  battery  .itself,  which 
showed  the  everlasting  advantage  in  warfare  of 
being  the  bull's  eye  rather  than  the  rings  around 
it.     Many   of    the    Turkish  shells  failed    to  ex- 


68  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

plode,  thus  becoming  as  ineffective  as  so  many- 
ancient  round  shot  sent  flying  and  ricochetting 
over  the  valley.  In  a  lull  a  lieutenant  called  my 
attention  to  the  absence  of  his  revolver  and  said 
laughingly  that  the  little  round  visitor  which  had 
carried  it  away  the  day  before  had,  on  account  of 
its  nationality,  refused  to  respond  to  percussion. 

The  morning  spent  in  this  battery  was  to  me 
the  brightest  page  in  the  story  of  the  war.  Then 
only  did  the  Greeks  seem  superior  to  the  Turks, 
for  our  marksmanship  was  certainly  better  than 
theirs  and  we  showed  a  spirit  equal  to  checking 
a  considerable  advance.  It  was  fascinating  to 
watch  for  the  effect  of  our  shells.  If  the  dust  of 
explosion  were  gray  we  knew  that  the  shell  had 
fallen  far  short,  on  the  rocks,  without  execution ; 
if  the  dust  were  red  we  knew  that  it  had  fallen 
in  the  earthwork  itself.  We  must  have  done  a 
deal  of  damage,  but  we  had  not,  as  our  enthusi- 
astic artillerymen  believed,  silenced  some  of  the 
Turkish  guns  Avhich  had  ceased  firing. 

Rather,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  Mo- 
hammedan gunners  were  only  having  a  siesta  or 
a  cup  of  coffee  and  prayers ;  and  it  was  most 
fortunate  that  Colonel  Smollenske  did  not  act  on 
the  advice  of  the  enthusiasts  to  try  to  take  Vigli 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  69 

by  storm  in  front.  The  only  way  to  take  Vigli, 
the  colonel  said,  was  on  the  side  or  the  rear.  On 
the  previous  day  as  well  some  of  the  guns  of 
Vigli  had  appeared  to  be  silenced,  and  the  Turks 
had  given  up  the  watch-houses  with  little  resist- 
ance as  a  further  enticement  to  a  suicidal  move- 
ment by  the  Greek  infantry. 

When  I  left  the  battery  and  sought  shelter 
behind  a  mountain  spur  I  took  out  my  field 
glasses  again  and  looked  in  the  direction  of  the 
musketry  which  had  been  rattling  on  the  other 
side  of  the  valley  ever  since  daybreak.  The 
blue  lines  of  the  Greeks  standing  out  sharply 
against  the  gray  mountain  side  were  in  the  same 
position  as  when  I  had  first  observed  them  five 
hours  before,  still  hammering  away  at,  to  me,  an 
invisible  foe.  One  could  not  help  thinking,  as 
he  looked  from  little  height  to  little  height  along 
the  horizon  which,  with  earthworks  as  cushions 
for  bullets  and  shells,  could  have  been  made  the 
finest  of  redoubts,  of  how  the  regular  army  had 
wasted  its  time,  and  of  the  pity  of  spending  a 
sum  in  arming  irregular  "  petticoat  men  **  which 
would  have  purchased  several  mountain  guns  or 
Maxims. 

There   seemed   no  likelihood  of  any  decisive 


JO  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

conflict  at  Ravenni.  My  fear  that  no  news  from 
Meluna  might  mean  great  news  increased,  and  I 
determined  to  return  to  Larissa. 

Castopis  had  been  told  to  wait  for  me  at  a 
small  village  some  five  miles  in  the  rear  of 
Ravenni,  which  was  a  long  enough  tramp  at 
midday  when  one  had  been  up  since  four  o'clock 
with  no  breakfast  except  the  half  of  a  small  cup 
of  revoltingly  thick,  strong,  black  coffee  and  a 
piece  of  soldiers'  bread.  As  I  swung  along  I  was 
cheered  by  the  recollection  of  the  good  things 
in  my  traveling  bags  and  by  the  prospect  of 
reaching  Larissa  from  the  village  in  an  hour  and 
a  half  on  Kitso's  back.  But  I  found  that  Kitso 
had  been  taken  ill  on  the  road;  and  the  army 
veterinary  surgeon  who  happened  to  be  present 
said  that  it  would  be  most  unwise  to  ride  him  for 
two  or  three  hours.  Several  horseless  cavalry 
officers  posted  at  the  village  furnished  bread  and 
mutton  while  I  furnished  sardines,  and  we  made 
a  grand  banquet  in  the  shadow  of  the  shep- 
herd's hut  which  the  officers  were  occupying, 
with  horseless  cavalrymen  to  serve  us. 

Four  companies  of  Reserves  were  lounging  on 
the  hillside  and  at  the  riverside  near  by.  The 
captain  of  cavalry  who  carved  the  mutton  with 


Moving  only  with  its  shadow.' 


The  Army  of  Desolation. 


3 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  71 

a  pocket-knife  said  that  they  were  waiting  for 
orders.  And  so,  I  learned,  were  many  other 
companies  of  Reserves  scattered  four  miles  out 
of  action  along  the  road  from  Larissa  to  Trik- 
kala,  their  officers  in  a  state  of  general  perplexity 
as  to  geographic  details  and  buttonholing  every 
passerby  for  news. 

It  was  four  o'clock  before  I  bade  good-bye  to 
the  officer  who  had  carved  the  mutton  with  a 
pocket-knife.  I  was  not  to  see  him  again  until 
the  dismal  business  on  the  road  to  Thermopylae. 
Then  he  was  sitting  in  a  caf^  ten  miles  to  the 
rear  of  the  army  and  another  cavalry  officer  was 
saying  to  him  :  **  Who  told  you  to  leave  your 
post  of  duty?  Get  out  of  here!  Get  back  to 
the  army,  you !  " 

The  white  dust  of  the  road  seemed  to  blaze 
like  the  sun  overhead  as  we  rode  toward  Larissa. 
To  lose  Kitso  at  that  moment  would  be  the 
greatest  hardship  that  could  befall  me.  As  I 
allowed  him  to  choose  his  pace,  we  did  not  ar- 
rive until  dusk.  Women  were  speaking  with  one 
another  in  the  streets  and  in  the  doorways  of  the 
little  courtyards  which  are  the  Grecian  women's 
world  in  times  of  peace.  The  City  Hall  was 
empty,  and  only  a  few  civilians  loitered  in  the 


72  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

caf^s.  Surfeited  shop-keepers  gazed  as  curiously 
as  unsophisticated  shepherds  at  a  mounted 
passerby.  Larissa  was  hushed  like  the  sick  room 
of  a  fever  patient  at  the  crisis.  It  dared  not 
ask  the  latest  news,  for  the  general  air  of  gravity 
seemed  to  portend  an  unfavorable  answer.  At 
Headquarters,  aides-de-camp  with  gestures  and 
sighs  said  there  was  no  news  from  Meluna  Pass. 
The  officers  who  came  in  from  nearby  posts  to 
the  cafe  in  the  evening,  however,  communicated 
their  lightness  of  manner  to  the  general  public, 
and  Larissa  became  gay  again. 

"  Coinme  ciy  comme  qa^  with  now  and  then  a 
watch-house  in  our  hands,"  they  said  gaily. 
"  To-morrow  Colonel  SmoUenske  will  take 
Vigli.- 

But  they  had  no  news  from  Meluna  Pass.  No 
correspondent,  no  one  of  the  foreign  military  at- 
taches had  been  to  Meluna  or  was  wanted  there. 
At  the  telegraph  office  you  were  told  that  you 
might  send  no  telegram  about  Meluna,  and  then 
you  knew  that  no  news  from  Meluna  was,  indeed, 
great  news  and  immensely  bad  news. 

Indisputable  evidence  of  disaster  appeared  in 
the  streets  the  next  (Wednesday)  morning.  The 
advance  of  the  Army  of  Desolation  which  hence- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  73 

forth  was  to  precede  the  Army  of  the  Caf6  in  all 
of  its  marches  had  begun.  Whole  families  with 
their  simple  household  goods  packed  on  don- 
keys and  on  rude  slab-wheeled  ox- carts  were 
moving  in  a  sad  caravan  across  the  plain.  An 
officer  whom  I  met  on  the  road  explained  that 
the  Greeks  had  had  to  give  up  Liguria  at  the 
mouth  of  the  pass  and  Karatsali,  another  village 
near  by,  for  strategic  purposes  and  the  refugees 
that  I  saw  were  their  inhabitants. 

Now  and  then  I  passed  a  galloping  orderly 
with  the  news  of  his  dispatch  written  on  his  face. 
At  Turnavo,  some  five  miles  to  the  west  of  Me- 
luna  Pass,  I  saw  more  orderlies  waiting  in  the 
crooked  streets  as  if  perplexed.  They  were  cov- 
ered with  dust  and  showed  the  effect  of  a  hard 
night's  work.  Peasants  with  their  families  and 
goods  were  choking  up  the  little  square.  Every 
civilian,  I  learned,  had  been  ordered  to  leave  the 
town. 

As  I  drove  along  the  road  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountains  toward  Liguria  I  heard  the  same  lack- 
adaisical rattle  of  musketry  all  along  the  moun- 
tain ridges  and  occasionally  a  spent  bullet  went 
over  my  head.  Soon  I  came  upon  donkeys 
laden  with   ammunition,  bread    carts,  stragglers, 


74  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

sick  soldiers  resting  by  the  wayside,  and  other 
evidences  of  the  rear  of  a  battle  line. 

The  exchange  of  hundreds  of  shells  and  the 
two  hours'  sharp  infantry  work  which  were  to 
constitute  the  action  of  the  next  three  days  has 
been  called  the  Battle  of  Mali,  and  that  name 
will  be  retained,  though  other  names  are  as  appli- 
cable. If  you  will  imagine  Meluna  Pass  a  river 
and  the  sub-plain  of  Mati  a  delta,  you  will  best 
understand  the  triangular  shape  of  the  battle- 
field. A  right-angled  mountain  spur  is  at  either 
angle  at  the  base  of  the  triangle. 

The  Greeks  had  built  fine  military  roads  along 
the  plain,  and  also  from  Pharsala  to  Domoko 
and  from  Domoko  to  Lamia  over  the  Fourka 
Pass  to  Thermopylae,  but  none  up  Meluna  Pass, 
and  it  would  seem  that  with  all  of  their  boast- 
ing the  officers  were  unconsciously  preparing  for 
defeat,  for  they  said  a  road  over  the  pass  would 
be  an  advantage  to  the  Turks ;  quite  a  needless 
anxiety,  however,  considering  the  destructive 
power  of  a  little  dynamite.  Paths,  up  the  ridges 
for  the  donkeys  with  mountain  guns  could  have 
been  easily  made. 

A  country  determined  first  of  all  upon  a  policy 
of  land  defense,  its  only  logical  policy  after  the 


"  An  orderly  waiting  in  a  crooked  street. 


"  Evsoni  .  .  .  indifferent  to  shell  fire.' 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  75 

taking  of  Crete,  could  have  fortified  the  pass  and 
its  surrounding  heights  with  enough  mountain 
and  rapid  fire  guns  to  have  made  the  air  on  the 
Turkish  side  of  the  defile  so  thick  with  projectiles 
that  an  advance  up  the  defile  itself  would  have 
meant  the  building  of  a  breastwork  for  the  Turks 
out  of  their  own  flesh.  But  we  had  not  even 
defenses  within  the  defile  proper  where  we  might 
have  constructed  a  redoubt  at  little  expense. 
Our  field  artillery  was  at  Ravenni  where  we  ex- 
pected the  invasion  of  an  enemy  who  had  not 
brought  his  field  artillery  near  Ravenni.  In  all, 
I  believe  he  had  little  more  artillery  than  we, 
but  he  had  more  at  the  essential  point.  The 
ridges  along  the  frontier  offered  as  good  natural 
breastworks  for  the  Turks  as  for  the  Greeks.  It 
was  not  difficult,  when  we  had  no  spies  or  scouts, 
for  Edhem  Pasha  to  keep  superior  numbers  busy 
in  the  long  line  from  Meluna  to  Ravenni  while 
he  collected  a  main  force  superior  to  any  force 
opposite  it. 

With  this  main  force  he  suddenly  dashed  up 
Meluna  Pass.  Once  he  gained  the  other  side 
the  Greeks  would  have  to  concentrate  in  the 
open  and  their  mountain  barrier  would  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.         So  surprised  were 


76  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

some  of  our  few  artillerymen  whose  guns  com- 
manded the  Turkish  advance  that  they  ran  away 
without  firing  a  shot,  to  the  astonishment  of  the 
enemy  already  a  little  chilled  at  the  prospect  of 
shell  fire  at  short  range.  The  outnumbered  reg- 
ular "  petticoat  men  "  in  the  pass  at  first  fought 
courageously  and  gave  the  enemy  its  strongest 
opposition  in  reaching  the  plain.  On  the  same 
day  of  their  success  in  Meluna  the  Turks  at- 
tempted, or  seemed  to  attempt,  to  draw  the 
Greeks  on  to  the  disaster  of  an  attack  by  storm 
at  Ravenni.  If  Edhem  Pasha  had  no  plan  of 
campaign,  as  some  have  said,  he  had  an  instinc- 
tive method  which,  in  the  face  of  Greek  general- 
ship, was  an  excellent  substitute  for  it. 

A  rumor  was  circulated  from  Headquarters  that 
the  **  evacuation  "  of  Liguria  at  the  mouth  of  the 
pass  without  a  struggle  was  due  to  the  misinter- 
pretation of  an  order  by  the  ofificer  in  command 
there ;  but  it  is  hard  to  withstand  the  impression 
that  the  force  at  Liguria  simply  ''  funked." 
Early  Wednesday  morning  the  Greeks  started  to 
"  retake"  Liguria;  but,  without  coming  into  con- 
tact with  the  enemy  at  any  point,  marched  back 
again  to  form  in  line  of  battle  across  the  breadth 
of   the   triangle,  where   they  waited    with  great 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  jj 

generosity  until  the  Turks  should  be  ready  to  at- 
tack on  their  own  conditions. 

Red  fezzes  in  solid  masses  streamed  down  the 
narrow  defile  unmolested  by  artillery  or  sharp- 
shooters' fire,  one  battalion  going  one  way  and 
one  another  to  form  the  right  and  the  left  wings 
of  the  Turkish  battle  line.  Their  right  marched 
to  the  cover  of  the  brow  of  a  hill,  followed  by 
their  artillery  which  appreciated  the  military 
road  left  intact  by  the  Greeks.  Bunches  of 
fezzes  in  the  Turkish  left  stopped  in  the  middle 
of  the  plain  to  form  a  centre,  but  the  main  body 
kept  on  moving  out  in  a  red  streak  on  our  right 
toward  Larissa  and  soon  had  occupied  a  village 
almost  on  a  line  with  Turnavo.  Greek  officers 
on  the  rocky  bluff  shaped  like  a  camel's  back 
just  at  the  right  of  the  Greek  batteries  watched 
this  spectacle  as  if  entranced,  and  were  moved 
to  little  gestures  of  despair  when  a  great  burst  of 
smoke  showed  that  the  Greek  church  in  Liguria 
had  been  mined. 

Again  Edhem  Pasha  was  following  a  simple 
plan  of  strategy.  His  right  remained  like  a  great 
red  blot  behind  the  brow  of  the  hill  in  a  purely 
defensive  position  on  our  left,  while  his  left  ad- 
vanced with  increasing  strength.     Our  guns  and 


yS  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

our  reserves  were  all  placed  on  our  left  and  left 
centre.  Our  right  was  not  being  strengthened. 
General  Macris,  in  charge  of  the  field,  was  behind 
the  camel's  hump  rock  in  a  state  of  seeming  para- 
lytic perplexity.  A  correspondent  told  him  about 
the  rapid  movement  on  our  right,  and  he  was  so 
grateful  for  information  that  he  sent  out  some 
scouts  on  our  centre  who  rode  back  unharmed 
with  nothing  to  tell  except  that  they  had  heard 
the  sound  of  bullets. 

Manifestly,  if  Edhem  Pasha  tried  to  drive  in 
our  left  we  could  put  his  right  under  heavy  pun- 
ishment by  converging  lines  of  fire,  and  should 
he  succeed  in  this  movement,  our  retreat  to  La- 
rissa  in  good  form  was  easy ;  and  manifestly, 
an  attack  on  our  centre  was  equally  impractic- 
able. But  if  he  could  flank  our  right,  we  would 
be  caught  in  a  crux  in  trying  to  retreat  around 
the  Turkish  left  to  Larissa  which  would  likely 
mean  our  undoing.  It  was  easy  enough  to  guess 
that  the  artillery  which  had  moved  over  to  the 
Turkish  right  would  pass  back  to  their  left 
under  the  cover  of  the  hill  at  the  right  and  a 
line  of  trees  at  the  centre — as  they  did. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  a  squadron  of  Turkish 
cavalry  advanced  on  our  centre,  drew  the  fire  of 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  79 

our  guns,  and  retreated  in  order  without  any 
loss,  so  far  as  I  could  see.  Edhem  Pasha  was  in 
no  hurry  now  that  he  knew  the  location  of  our 
masked  batteries,  and  this  incident  closed  the 
first  day's  spectacle.  In  Larissa  that  evening 
the  populace  gloated  over  the  story  of  the  whole 
Turkish  cavalry  wiped  out  by  our  shell  fire,  and 
the  artillery  officers  themselves  seemed  to  think 
they  had  won  a  veritable  victory. 

Wednesday  night  was  a  night  to  sleep  in  one's 
boots  if  one  slept  at  all.  Having  proved  to  my 
own  satisfaction  by  one  o'clock  in  the  morning 
that  no  press  telegram  or  private  telegram  could 
be  sent  out  of  Larissa,  I  nodded  in  front  of  the 
cafe  while  horses  were  being  hitched  to  the  cast- 
off  Parisian  carriage,  which  I  had  chartered  in- 
definitely, to  take  me  back  to  Mati.  The  plain 
of  Thessaly  was  still  ours  and  the  camps  of  the 
Army  of  Desolation  along  the  road  to  Turnavo 
were  safe  until  daybreak  at  least.  According  to 
reports  from  Turkish  sources  as  printed  in  Eu- 
ropean papers,  Turnavo  was  taken  on  Tuesday ; 
but  on  Thursday  morning  I  was  driving  through 
Turnavo  and  engaged  peacefully  enough,  two 
miles  in  the  rear  of  the  Greek  army,  in  bolting  a 
breakfast  of  black  bread,  cold  boiled  eggs   and 


8o  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

water.  When  we  came  to  a  point  which  was 
certain  to  be  out  of  the  line  of  fire  and  yet  ac- 
cessible, I  bade  the  driver,  under  the  direst  of 
penalties,  to  picket  his  horses  and  not  to  leave 
the  carriage  until  I  returned.  My  luncheon  and 
dinner  were  in  the  carriage,  moreover,  and,  if  we 
should  have  the  promised  decisive  battle  I  in- 
tended to  drive  at  top  speed  to  Larissa,  where 
I  should  find  Kitso  perfectly  fresh  to  bear  me 
toward  a  point  of  communication  with  New  York 
by  telegraph. 

Just  before  daybreak  I  sat  down  on  the  camel's 
hump  among  the  Evzoni  who  with  character- 
istic, gentle  politeness  made  a  place  for  me  in 
their  nature's  rifle-pit  and  offered  me  a  share  of 
their  mites  of  black  bread  and  of  the  oozoo  in 
their  flasks.  They  remembered  me  from  yester- 
day and  now  considered  me  more  or  less  of  a 
comrade.  Disappointment  at  the  failure  of  the 
expected  early  attack  to  materialize  was  miti- 
gated by  the  spectacle  of  the  sun  bursting  over 
Pelion  and  on  to  the  snowy  top  of  Olympus  out- 
lined clearly  above  the  mist  which  lay  over  the 
plain. 

Dissipation  of  the  mist  revealed  no  sign  of 
activity   except   many  curling  little  columns  of 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  8i 

smoke  over  the  Turkish  lines.  Mine  enemy  in 
the  fez  and  baggy  trousers  was  boiling  water. 
He  would  like  a  little  bread  for  breakfast, 
though  bread  was  not  positively  essential ;  but 
the  small  cup  of  black  coffee  he  must  have. 
Afterward,  and  not  until  afterward,  he  would 
gladly  die  for  his  Prophet.  Our  soldiers  had  no 
fires.  Their  fine  brass  kettles,  even  their  coffee- 
pots, were  in  Larissa  where  they  were  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  Turks.  With  plenty  of  biscuits 
and  bread  and  coffee  in  Larissa,  Headquarters 
had  made  as  yet  only  the  scantiest  arrangements 
for  their  transportation  to  Mati. 

A  glance  at  the  positions  showed  that  the 
Turkish  left  had  crept  up  a  little  on  our  right 
which  had  received  few  if  any  of  the  reinforce- 
ments that  had  come  up  over  night.  Most  of 
them  along  with  four  additional  guns  had  been 
placed  on  our  left  at  the  left  of  the  camel's  hump, 
while  the  Turkish  right  which  opposed  it  re- 
mained where  it  was  the  day  before. 

Coffee  over,  the  Turkish  guns  sent  one  shell  at 
the  polite  distance  of  twenty  yards  beyond  the 
Greek  batteries  which  seemed  to  say  :  "  Good 
morning,  gentlemen  of  the  opposition  !  Have 
you  had  your  breakfast,  too,  and  are  you  ready 


82  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

to  begin  ?  "  Three  or  four  companies  of  Turkish 
infantry  advanced  toward  our  centre  in  skirmish 
order,  whereupon  the  Evzoni  made  sure  that  the 
mechanism  of  their  rifles  was  in  working  order 
and  shifted  their  bandoliers.  When  two  Turkish 
batteries  opened  up  with  a  salvo  the  Evzoni 
dodged  at  first,  but  observing  the  nonchalance 
of  the  foreign  military  attaches,  they  showed,  by 
becoming  indifferent  to  the  shells  which  shrieked 
over  their  heads  to  tear  up  the  ploughed  ground 
in  the  rear  of  our  batteries,  that  they  needed  only 
good  handling  to  make  fine  regulars. 

The  chance  the  Evzoni  longed  for  was  antic- 
ipated by  two  Greek  shells  placed  so  well  into 
the  advancing  skirmish  line  of  Turks  that  it 
promptly  flew  to  cover ;  it  did  not  appear  again, 
having  finished  a  movement  which  was  plainly  a 
feint.  The  fire  of  the  Turkish  batteries  dimin- 
ished and  soon  ceased  altogether  and  our  batter- 
ies followed  their  example.  Apparently,  Edhem 
Pasha  was  hardly  inclined  to  attack  that  day,  and 
the  Crown  Prince,  who  had  now  pitched  his  tent 
well  in  the  rear,  said  that  he  certainly  was  not. 
Correspondents  waited  in  vain  until  dark  for 
something  to  turn  up  and  were  rewarded  only  by 
the  sound  of  intermittent  firing  along  the  moun- 
tain ridges  at  our  left. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  83 

There  were  good  reasons  why  Edhem  Pasha 
should  prefer  to  postpone  a  pitched  battle.  He 
had  more  artillery  coming  through  Meluna;  fur- 
thermore, that  portion  of  his  army  which  was  at 
this  time  forcing  the  pass  at  Nezeros  was  ex- 
pected to  make  a  junction  with  his  flanking  left 
wing.  Our  only  hope  of  keeping  the  Turks  out 
of  the  Thessalian  plain  was  a  real  battle  at  Mati. 
Had  we  brought  up  guns  and  men  which  could 
have  been  spared  from  other  points  on  the  fron- 
tier, had  we  surprised  the  Turkish  left  at  day- 
break and  attacked  it  with  determination  and 
skill — but  ours  was  ever  the  Army  of  the  Cafe. 

On  Friday  the  Turk  fired  a  morning  saluta- 
tion of  a  few  shells  after  his  coffee  and  then  took 
a  siesta  from  which  he  awakened  suddenly  with 
a  salvo  from  four  batteries.  One  of  the  officers 
who  was  lounging  at  the  little  church  at  the  far 
side  of  the  camel's  hump  was  struck  by  two  frag- 
ments from  one  of  the  cluster  of  shells  that  came 
so  unexpectedly.  He  expired  instantly  in  the 
arms  of  a  comrade  with  the  words  "  It  is  noth- 
ing !  "  on  his  lips.  It  was  several  minutes  before 
the  artillerymen  were  mustered  and  could  return 
Edhem  Pasha's  greeting. 

The  lapses  in  the  booming  of  a  heavy  artillery 


84  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

fusillade  brought  to  our  ears  the  rattle  of  musketry 
on  our  right,  from  which  Edhem  Pasha's  gunners 
had  diverted  our  attention.  A  sharp  infantry 
attack  drove  our  right  in,  and  it  was  not  late  in 
the  afternoon  when  the  flames  from  the  village 
of  Dheleria  which  had  been  a  mile  to  the  rear  of 
our  right  on  Wednesday  told  us  that  it  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Meanwhile,  the  Crown 
Prince  had  ridden  through  percussion  shell  fire, 
which  is  not  dangerous  to  a  man  on  horseback  on 
ploughed  ground,  and  then  had  returned  to  his 
tent  with  the  air  of  one  who  had  done  his  duty ; 
meanwhile,  the  Greek  cavalry  had  moved  back 
and  forth  some  two  miles  in  the  rear,  tiring  out 
its  horses.  It  was  variously  reported  that  the 
Crown  Prince  and  General  Mavromichalis  and 
General  Macris  was  each  in  command  of  the  field. 
All  three  were,  I  think.  I  saw  General  Macris 
behind  the  bluff  mumbling  orders  to  my  old 
escort,  the  lieutenant  of  cavalry,  with  suggestions 
from  a  colonel,  for  he  was  still  the  Crown  Prince's 
mouthpiece. 

Having  flanked  us,  the  Turkish  artillery  ceased 
firing  and  the  Turks  rested  themselves  from  the 
labors  of  the  day  with  another  cup  of  coffee. 
Allah  would  take  care  of  the  morrow. 


"General  Maoris  mumbling  orders.' 


Stacked  high  with  barley." 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  8  5 

After  dark,  while  those  wounded  by  shell  fire, 
by  the  musketry  from  the  ridges,  or  in  the  in- 
fantry attack  on  our  right,  were  being  joggled 
in  bread  carts  across  the  bridge  over  the  Peneios 
into  Larissa,  the  roughly  built  cathedral  on  the 
Acropolis  sent  out  a  blaze  of  light  which  shim- 
mered over  the  surface  of  the  river.  Some 
stragglers  who  had  drifted  into  the  public  square 
said  that  they  had  come  from  a  terrible  defeat  at 
Nezero  which  left  the  Vale  of  Tempe  open  to 
the  force  which  was  to  form  a  junction  with  the 
Turkish  left.  For  their  trouble  the  stragglers 
were  loudly  denounced  by  the  police  as  cowards 
and  liars,  and  were  locked  up.  An  hour  later 
officers  in  the  cafes  were  tapped  on  the  shoulder 
by  an  orderly  and  departed  in  a  hurry  ;  but  this 
was  not  very  unusual  in  these  trying  times. 

I  strolled  up  to  the  cathedral  and  entering 
bought  the  regulation  two  candles,  gluing  one  of 
them  to  a  little  table  and  keeping  the  other  to 
carry  in  the  procession  which  was  already  formed 
outside.  Only  a  few  days  before  the  cathedral 
had  rung  with  cries  of,  **  Long  live  the  war ! " 
while  all  the  priests  grouped  around  the  bishop 
had  said  "  Amen  !  "  to  his  prayer  that  the  Crown 
Prince  should  hasten  forth  to  deliver  his  fellow- 


86  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Christians  in  Macedonia  and  Epirus  from  bond- 
age. This  Friday  was  the  last  day  of  the  Greek 
Lent  and  the  blaze  of  the  candles  was  the  coun- 
terpart of  the  blooming  flowers  on  our  Easter 
morning.  The  procession  moved  slowly  through 
the  principal  streets.  Returning  by  way  of  the 
public  square,  Christian  after  Christian  dropped 
out  of  line  and  blew  out  his  candle  to  listen  to 
the  tales  of  the  vanquished  stragglers  from  Nez- 
ero,  now  too  numerous  for  the  police  to  sup- 
press, until  the  priests  alone,  bearing  aloft  in 
darkness  their  insignia  of  Christianity,  went  up 
the  hill  to  the  church  which  was  soon  to  be  the 
booty  of  the  False  Prophet. 

Our  soldiers,  who  were  lying  on  their  arms  at 
Mati,  had  had  the  scantiest  of  rations  on  Wed- 
nesday and  Thursday.  On  Friday  they  had 
fasted.  The  Reserves  had  found  that  war  in  deed 
was  not  the  war  of  the  talk  of  the  cafe.  Comrades 
sent  to  the  well  in  the  rear  for  water  came  back 
with  tales  of  their  general's  duplicity  and  of 
Turkish  horrors.  A  corporal  of  Reserves,  weak 
for  want  of  food,  expressed  the  feeling  of  an  army 
which  had  so  ridiculously  underestimated  its  op- 
ponents when  he  said  at  the  well:  "  I  heard  a  bul- 
let go  over  my  head.     They  are  killing  Greeks. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  87 

I  have  seen  dead  men  myself."  Greek  officers 
had  without  reason  circulated  the  tale  of  wounded 
Greeks  burnt  alive  in  a  church  by  the  Turks. 
This  instead  of  arousing  the  peasants  to  the 
mania  of  revenge  made  them  quake  with  fear  of 
a  similar  fate.  All  the  Irregulars  who  had  been 
beaten  back  from  the  frontier  had  now  wandered 
from  Kalabaka  to  the  principal  scene  of  action. 
They  went  up  the  mountain  side,  moved  around 
to  the  right,  fired  a  shot  at  the  enemy  well 
out  of  range,  and  then  ran  away.  The  peasant 
soldiers  had  looked  on  these  mountaineer  boast- 
ers with  a  taste  for  brigandage,  who  were  ever 
telling  of  their  prowess  in  the  village  cafes,  as 
the  embodiment  of  physical  courage.  When 
the  Irregulars  showed  the  white  feather  the 
simple  Reservist  felt  that  some  calamity  must  be 
at  hand.  Thus  was  the  sa.ying  of  Von  Moltke 
that  an  untrained  soldier  meant  a  loss  of  three 
soldiers,  for  it  took  three  trained  soldiers  to  care 
for  him,  illustrated  again. 

As  his  limbs  grew  stiff  from  lying  on  the 
ground,  the  simple  Reservist's  imagination  became 
vivid.  For  three  days  he  had  been  inactive 
within  range  of  the  enemy's  guns,  compelled  to 
see  the  ploughed  ground  around  him  tossed  up  in 


88  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

columns  of  dust ;  to  listen  to  the  "  uh-kung  "  of 
bursting  shrapnel  and  the  consequent  "  thr-r-ip  " 
of  its  fragments  as  they  struck  the  earth,  the 
sighs  of  dying  bullets  which  came  from  the  inter- 
mittent firing  on  the  ridges  at  the  left,  and  the 
buzz  of  an  occasional  bullet  near  at  hand— all 
needlessly.  The  soil  at  the  rear  of  our  batteries 
was  as  thick  with  fragments  of  iron  as  a  German 
cake  with  caraway  seed,  though  we  had  not  lost  a 
dozen  men  all  told.  At  a  trying  moment  on  Fri- 
day the  folly  of  an  officer  on  the  ridges  at  the  left 
was  responsible  for  the  spectacle  of  a  dead  Evzoni 
with  dangling  arms  and  legs  thrown  over  a  plod- 
ding ass  which  passed  along  the  whole  line  of  Re- 
serves. Any  one  of  the  few  Reserves  who  was 
wounded  made  far  more  in  the  imaginations  of 
the  peasant  boys  than  ten  deaths  would  had  the 
Reserves  been  in  action.  A  beating  sun  on  Fri- 
day helped  their  empty  stomachs  to  weaken  still 
further  brain  and  body.  In  the  evening  they 
had  no  camp  fires  to  cheer  their  spirits.  No 
rollicking  soldiers*  song  was  ever  heard  on  the 
battle  field  of  Mati.  Our  downhearted  Reservist 
had  ceased  even  to  chatter. 

It   was   too  cold    for  him  to  sleep  on   Friday 
night.     He   lay   on   his   rifle  nervously  wakeful 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  89 

and  listening.  Stragglers  from  Nezero  had  told 
him  the  news  and  then,  taking  advantage  of  the 
privilege  of  defeat,  had  hurried  on  to  Larissa, 
leaving  him,  shivering  and  hungry,  to  face  the 
oncoming  reinforcements — thousands  upon  thou- 
sands, as  stragglers  always  say  to  excuse  their 
flight — for  the  already  victorious  left  wing  of  the 
enemy  which  was  to  massacre  him  then  and 
there. 

The  officer,  whose  presence  kept  him  from 
carrying  out  his  instinctive  desire  at  once,  was 
probably  thinking  of  the  same  thing  as  he  was. 
A  word  or  a  sign  would  be  enough  to  make  both 
of  them  fly,  and  this  came  from  Headquarters  in 
the  order  for  the  guns  and  certain  portions  of 
the  Reserves  to  draw  off,  as  the  first  movement 
of  a  retreat  to  Larissa.  Only  the  Evzoni  and 
the  Foreign  Legion  remained  at  their  posts. 
The  remainder  of  the  front  lines,  seeing  the 
movements  in  the  rear,  did  not  wait  for  instruc- 
tions, but  hurried  on  toward  the  road  to  Larissa 
in  increasingly  tumultuous  disorder.  On  reach- 
ing the  road  there  was  a  crux:  companies  dis- 
integrated ;  officers  forgot  their  responsibilities  ; 
and  the  fear  of  each  struggling  man  was  increased 
by  the  community  of  fear  in  which  he  found  him- 


90  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

self,  his  inertia  of  the  last  few  days  reacting  in 
spasmodic  strength. 

When  the  Greek  cavalry,  still  wandering  aim- 
lessly over  the  face  of  the  earth,  attempted  to 
pass  the  chaotic  column  at  the  sides  of  the  road, 
someone  raised  the  cry,  "  The  Turks  have  come  f 
They  are  upon  us  !  Massacre  !  Massacre  !  " 
which,  flying  along  the  line,  was  followed  by  uni- 
versal firing  intended  for  the  Circassian  horsemen 
who  were,  no  doubt,  sound  asleep  five  miles 
away.  The  bullets  went  whistling  up  and  down 
the  road,  across  the  plain,  and  into  the  air  when 
not  dealing  death  to  Greeks.  Those  officers 
who  did  not  use  their  revolvers  with  equal  reck- 
lessness were  powerless  to  resist  such  a  torrent. 
The  cavalry  started  into  a  gallop ;  artillerymen 
cut  traces  and  tried  to  ride  away,  intensifying 
the  general  belief  of  the  foot  soldiers  that  they 
were  Turks  and  thus  increasing  their  own  dan- 
ger. A  part  of  the  many  soldiers  of  Greece 
who  fell  under  foot  had  been  shot ;  others  had 
fainted  or  had  sunk  down  from  the  incapacity  of 
fright,  perhaps  to  be  trampled  to  death. 

A  reaction  began  when  the  Greek  cavalry 
passed  out  of  sight.  Weakness  from  fasting  com- 
bined with  an  inherent  lack  of  forcefulness  be- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  91 

came  the  helpmeet  of  discipline.  Gradually  the 
tumult  subsided.  There  was  another  but  not  a 
suicidal  crux  at  the  bridge  at  Larissa.  Here  the 
Army  of  Desolation  with  its  crying  children, 
donkeys  and  ox-carts  met  the  Army  of  the  Cafe 
and  for  a  moment  they  became  an  army  of  des- 
peration. 

At  dawn  the  spectacle  in  the  streets  of  Larissa 
told  dramatically  the  story  of  six  days'  war  in 
Greece.  A  majority  of  the  officers  for  the  time 
being  stood  about  in  the  streets  helplessly  inact- 
ive. A  puissant  minority,  angered  and  strength- 
ened by  shame,  set  about  getting  the  soldiers  up 
out  of  the  gutter.  The  Reserves  now  were  like  so 
many  sick  sheep,  and  they  were  easily  driven  off 
toward  Pharsala  in  disorder  but  in  a  mass  by 
suggesting  to  them  the  prospect  of  five  thousand 
Turkish  cavalry  sweeping  across  the  plain.  Our 
stores,  much  of  our  ammunition,  and  at  least 
three  of  the  big  Krupps  on  the  Acropolis,  which 
had  never  fired  a  shot  in  the  defense  of  Larissa, 
were  lost.  We  did  not  burn  our  bridges,  cut  our 
telegraph  wires  or  tear  up  sections  of  railroad 
track,  but  left  all  intact  for  the  assistance  of  the 
enemy. 

As   surprised   as   the   phlegmatic   Turk   must 


92  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

have  been  at  the  evidences  of  disaster  that  lay  on 
the  plain  in  the  morning,  he  did  not  take  advan- 
tage of  hfs  opportunity  to  end  the  war  by  an  im- 
mediate attack,  or  even  to  cut  up  our  retreat  from 
Larissa  with  a  cavalry  charge.  Mine  enemy  in 
the  fez  and  baggy  trousers  enjoyed  several  cups 
of  coffee  and  several  siestas  before  he  followed  up 
his  victory. 

An  hour  after  midnight  the  versatile  police 
who  had  locked  up  the  stragglers  from  Nezero 
had  run  from  house  to  house,  saying :  "  The 
Turk  is  upon  us  !  The  Crown  Prince  says  to  fly 
for  your  lives  with  all  haste  !  "  Probably  this  or- 
der as  given  out  by  Headquarters  was  scarcely  so 
abrupt  or  so  urgent,  considering  that  the  Greek 
army  stood  at  a  distance  of  eight  miles  between 
Larissa  and  the  Turks,  with  the  six  hours  before 
daybreak  in  its  favor ;  and  it  is  to  be  presumed 
that  the  policeman,  Greek  fashion,  amended  his 
instructions  to  suit  his  own  taste  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  moment.  As  a  result,  all  of  the 
people  of  Larissa  became  frantic  in  their  desire 
for  the  safety  of  themselves  and  their  belongings. 
Sharper  than  the  din  of  the  streets  were  the  moans 
of  the  women.  All  the  fear  of  a  subject  people 
who  believed  their  now  incensed  masters  to  be 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  93 

incapable  of  no  horror  was  pictured  in  the  faces 
that  I  saw  by  the  Hght  of  the  street  lamps  as  I 
made  my  way  with  difficulty  to  my  lodgings. 

Castopis,  who  said  that  he  did  not  dare  to  go  so 
near  temptation  as  a  battle,  had  remained  behind 
to  superintend  the  grooms  who  cared  for  my 
pony.  On  my  table  I  found  a  note  from  him  : 
"  Honorable  Sir :  I  am  called  to  Volo  on  per- 
sonal business.  If  you  do  not  come  to  Volo  in 
a  day  or  two  I  hope  to  return  soon.  True  to  my 
duty,  I  have  never  once  had  a  rifle  in  my  hands." 

The  carriage  that  I  had  hired  could  never 
have  been  more  useful  than  now,  but  the  driver 
said  that  he  needed  it  for  his  family.  There  was 
not  room  for  all  of  my  baggage  in  my  traveling 
bags  at  best,  and  I  was  not  inclined  to  weigh 
down  my  brave  Kitso  with  much  else  besides 
myself  and  the  important  news  which  he  must 
bear  with  all  possible  speed.  So  I  deliberately 
left  many  things,  including  my  canned  goods,  for 
the  delectation  of  such  of  Edhem  Pasha's  soldiery 
as  should  ransack  the  houses  in  our  street. 

Again  and  again  I  congratulated  myself  that 
I  had  kept  Kitso  fresh  by  not  riding  him  to  the 
front.  I  had  saddled  and  bridled  him  and  had 
my  hand  on  the  pommel  of  the  saddle  when  my 


94  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

landlady  rushed  up  to  me,  and  screaming  *'  Tur- 
cos ! "  ran  her  hand  suggestively  across  her 
throat.  "  No  !  No  !  "  I  said.  But  unfortunately 
at  the  same  time  I  shook  my  head,  which  in 
Greece  means  "Yes."  The  poor  woman  fell  on 
her  knees,  moaning  and  praying.  I  nodded  my 
head  up  and  down  in  a  Greek  "  No !  "  like  an 
automatic  doll  and  with  all  the  Greek  and  all  the 
gestures  at  my  command  tried  to  undo  the  wrong 
I  had  done  her. 

Then,  in  springing  into  the  saddle,  I  ripped  my 
Athenian-made  riding-breeches  the  whole  length 
of  the  inner  seam,  just  at  the  moment  when  my 
eye  discovered  that  the  only  piece  of  house- 
hold property  which  my  landlady  had  thus  far 
brought  out  to  her  cart  was  the  battered  wash- 
tub  in  which  I  had  taken  my  baths.  This  cha- 
otic coincidence,  despite  the  horror  around  me, 
made  a  laugh  irresistible. 

Kitso's  path  of  duty  and  mine  now  lay  in  the 
direction  of  Volo.  I  knew  that  I  could  not  send 
my  telegram  from  there,  but  I  trusted  that  the 
news  of  defeat  would  not  reach  Volo  with  suffi- 
cient force  in  time  to  upset  the  departure  at  two 
o'clock  of  the  regular  steamer  to  Athens,  where 
I  could  find  telegraphic  facilities,  or  transporta- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  95 

tion  to  some  neutral  port  in  the  event  of  a  clash 
with  the  government  censor.  In  each  little  vil- 
lage that  we  passed  through  I  found  a  repetition 
of  the  tumult  of  Larissa  surging  around  the 
priest  in  the  public  square.  He  was  bidding 
his  people  to  start  at  once  with  whatever  goods 
they  had  on  their  carts  or  donkeys.  Instead  of  a 
repast  of  the  colored  Easter  eggs  which  lay  on 
the  table  of  every  shepherd's  hut  and  a  day  of 
rejoicing  over  their  faith,  they  had  been 
awakened  by  the  cries  of  a  messenger  on  horse- 
back dashing  over  the  plain,  to  feed  on  fear  and 
to  join  the  Army  of  Desolation  in  its  long  march 
under  the  hot  sun. 

I  knew  the  distance  to  Volo  and  how  many 
hours  we  had  in  which  to  make  the  run.  If  I 
were  to  push  Kitso  to  his  greatest  speed  in  the 
early  stages  of  the  journey  he  might  fail  me  just 
as  we  came  to  the  pass  leading  from  Velestino 
to  Volo  which  proved  to  be  the  downfall  of  more 
than  one  horse  on  that  day.  So  I  rode,  as  it 
were,  with  my  watch  in  one  hand  and  the  other 
hand  on  Kitso's  pulse. 

At  the  foot  of  the  pass  I  alighted  and  Kitso 
and  I  walked  up  it  like  the  good  comrades  that 
we  were.     Once  at  the  summit  I  mounted  him 


g6  Going  to  War  in  Greece 

again  and  spurred  and  coaxed  out  every  inch  of 
speed  in  the  willing  little  fellow  until  completely- 
winded  (and  foundered  I  thought)  he  stopped  at 
the  door  of  the  hotel  in  Volo. 

I  thrust  the  reins  into  the  hands  of  the  aston- 
ished landlord,  and  crying  out  to  him  to  take 
good  care  of  my  hero,  I  rushed  on  board  the 
steamer,  which  was  crowded  with  wounded,  and 
with  the  leading  lights  of  Larissa,  including  the 
mayor,  who  had  come  on  the  special  train  for 
the  wounded  at  daylight,  leaving  their  constitu- 
ents to  care  for  themselves. 

"  It  was  a  great  downfall,"  said  the  m.ayor  in 
French,  with  assumed  gaiety. 

Pre-empting  a  vacant  place  among  the  groaning 
soldiers  stretched  out  on  deck,  and  pulling  off  my 
boots,  for  the  first  time  in  four  days  I  lay  down  to 
sleep.  Some  chatter  disturbed  me  and  I  rose 
with  a  complaint  on  my  lips  to  learn  that  the 
chatterers  were  friends  of  the  man  at  my  elbow 
who  had  just  died.  The  next  morning  I  awak- 
ened to  look  out  upon  the  wine-dark  sea  below 
Chalcis  and  to  recollect  my  callousness  of  the 
previous  night  as  an  event  in  wartime. 

In  Athens  I  was  able  to  avoid  the  censor,  and 
a  month  later  when  I  saw  the   foreign  papers,  it 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  97 

was  pleasant  for  brave  Kitso's  sake,  at  least,  to 
find  that  no  direct  report  of  the  true  nature  of 
the  retreat  from  Mati  except  Kitso's,  and  none 
copied  from  the  London  papers,  had  reached 
New  York  until  two  days  after  his,  when  all  that 
I  had  said  was  fully  confirmed  by  other  corre- 
spondents, who  had  then  reached  Athens  by 
means  of  sailing  vessels. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  Cafe  de  la  Constitution  in  Athens,  which 
had  forced  the  war,  grasped  the  situation 
of  defeat  so  neatly  that  it  became  more 
popular  and  influential  than  ever.  "  Yonder  in 
the  palace,"  it  said,  ''  is  the  cause  of  our  misery. 
Against  our  wills  the  King  and  his  ministers  led 
us  into  war  to  betray  us  for  Turkish  and  Russian 
gold." 

The  King  and  the  ministry  endeavored  to  cover 
the  disaster  with  the  old  ruse  of  an  orderly 
retreat  for  strategic  purposes,  and  not  until  the 
arrival  of  the  refugees  and  the  wounded  on  the 
steamer  from  Volo  did  the  Athenian  public 
know  of  the  panic  on  the  road  from  Mati.  So 
likely  did  violence  to  the  King  seeni  then  that  I 
promptly  secured  a  room  in  the  hotel  overlook- 
ing the  palace  steps,  an  arrangement  warranted, 
indeed,  by  preparations  which  the  King  had 
made  to  leave  his  back  door  in  a  carriage  and  fly 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  99 

to  a  British  man-of-war  in  the  Piraeus,  in  case 
of  necessity. 

But  the  mob,  never  before  so  merry,  was  not 
too  greedy  of  pleasure.  It  contented  itself  with 
the  mild  coup  of  forcing  the  King  to  make  one 
of  its  leading  spirits  premier  while  it  waited 
threateningly  on  the  palace  steps.  The  late 
premier,  M.  Delyannis,  in  taking  his  leave  amid 
groans,  said  that  he  had  been  greatly  misunder- 
stood. He  wanted  his  fellow-citizens  to  know 
that  he  had  used  all  his  talent  and  influence  to 
prevent  the  war.  Whatever  wrong  he  had  done 
had  been  forced  upon  him  by  the  King,  the 
white-haired  politician  declared,  with  all  of  the 
arrogance  of  an  ancient  Athenian  demagogue. 

Before  I  met  M.  Ralli,  the  new  premier,  in 
Athens,  I  had  seen  him  carrying  a  rifle  about 
at  Turnavo  after  the  manner  of  the  Irregulars. 
He  had  been  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  Ethnike 
Haeteria,  which  had  started  the  war,  and  having 
returned  to  Athens  before  the  retreat,  he  now 
became  the  leader  of  the  successful  opposition 
to  M.  Delyannis's  forward  policy.  In  the  first 
place,  he  asked  for  the  intercession  of  the  Pow- 
ers, and  in  the  next  place,  as  an  Ethnike  Haeteria 
man   with  a   knowledge   of    military   affairs,  he 


loo         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

started  at  once  for  the  new  line  of  defense  from 
Volo  to  Pharsala  to  learn  whether  or  not  the 
position  was  tenable. 

On  the  day  after  his  election  two  or  three 
speakers  from  the  parliament  house  steps  said 
he  was  as  bad  as  Delyannis.  Those  who  came 
out  to  hear  them  found  the  sun  too  hot  for  com- 
fort and  returned  to  the  caf^.  A  dozen  of  the 
wildest  element  broke  into  a  gunshop ;  where- 
upon merchants  pulled  down  their  shutters,  a 
number  of  stalwart  citizens  began  to  parade  the 
streets  in  armed  squads,  and  pillage  was  at  an 
end.  Greece  having  had  its  Sedan,  Athens  im- 
proved upon  Paris,  her  ideal,  with  an  imagin- 
ary commune  carried  on  with  great  comfort  in 
the  caf^s  on  warm  days,  when  the  demolition 
of  buildings  would  have  been  most  tiresome 
work. 

The  caf6  settled  down  to  discuss  news  of  de- 
feat as  it  came  from  civilians  returned  from  the 
front  or  from  the  imagination  of  city  idlers. 
Our  mayor  of  Larissa  sat  down  at  the  tables  to 
be  a  hero  much  in  demand  again.  Wits  painted 
word-pictures  of  the  Crown  Prince  running  away 
in  his  nightshirt,  followed  by  a  servant  carrying 
his  rubber  bathtub  filled  with  plans  for  the  invest- 


Going  to  War  in^pfcete;  ;,"yi<Jjio', '  ;  ,', 

ment  of  Constantinople.  One  rumor  said  that 
Constantin  was  hiding  in  the  cellar  of  his  father's 
country  house,  some  twenty  miles  from  Athens, 
and  another  that  he  had  run  away  to  the  moun- 
tains and  was  crying  for  his  papa  to  come  and 
save  him.  The  Athenian  comic  papers  were  full 
of  jokes  of  an  opera  bouffe  nature  on  **  Our  Great 
Downfall." 

But  of  all  the  anecdotes  from  the  front  the  caf^ 
thought  that  quite  the  choicest  was  about  Captain 
Hadjipatras,  one  of  the  Crown  Prince's  aides-de- 
camp. The  captain  drove  some  women  refugees 
out  of  the  early  train  that  left  Larissa  for  Volo  on 
the  morning  of  the  retreat  to  make  room  for  a 
crate  of  live  geese  intended  for  the  Prince's  table. 
When  he  replied  haughtily  to  the  little  station 
master  who  remonstrated  with  him,  the  station 
master  struck  him  in  the  face.  He  retreated  and 
the  geese  were  thrown  out  of  the  car. 

"  Is  Hadjipatras  a  brave  man  ? "  the  caf^ 
asked. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  was  the  reply.  "  He  saved  the 
batterie  de  cuisine  /  " 

"  Will  Hadjipatras  come  back  to  Athens  ?  " 

"  Oh  yes,  like  this,"  and  the  jokers  of  the 
caf6  would  cross  their  wrists  and  chuckle. 


IQ2         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

If  the  cafe  grew  serious  its  hangers-on  talked 
about  the  rifles  and  cartridges  which  they  had 
bought  to  keep  the  Turk  at  bay  when  he  arrived 
outside  of  Athens.  A  realization  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  peasants,  of-  the  cost  of  the  disaster 
to  an  already  bankrupt  country,  of  the  shame  of 
defeat,  of  racial  honor,  the  cafe  never  had.  If  a 
week  before  it  had  asked  that  Greece  be  left 
alone  to  fight  out  her  own  destiny,  it  now  in  the 
same  breath  continued  its  abuse  of  Europe  as 
the  cause  of  all  her  miseries,  while  it  expected 
Europe  to  stay  the  hand  of  the  Turk. 

Some  talked  of  the  annexation  of  Macedonia 
and  Epirus  as  well  as  the  reversion  of  Thessaly 
as  the  penalty  the  Powers  would  exact  from  the 
Sultan.  For  the  caf^  was  not  alone  the  spoiled 
child  of  the  Greek  people,  whom  it  ruled  with 
whatsoever  foolishness  it  misfht  devise  and  label 
democracy.  It  had  succeeded  on  a  broader  scale 
also  by  labeling  the  foreign  policy  of  Greece  with 
the  Parthenon.  When  the  caf^  had  complained, 
the  extent  of  the  Hellenic  kingdom  had  been  in- 
creased. 

"  We  have  only  to  stir  up  a  row  and  the  Powers 
will  give  us  more  territory,"  said  a  Greek  poli- 
tician, little  thinking  that  this  policy  would  de- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         103 

stroy  the  national  self  reliance  of  a  people  which 
has  many  excellent  qualities. 

Considering  the  issue  at  stake  in  a  war  of  race 
and  religious  hatred,  the  small  loss  of  life  thus 
far  was  almost  ridiculous.  Excepting  the  trage- 
dies in  the  panic,  the  Crown  Prince's  army  of 
forty-five  or  fifty  thousand  men  in  six  days' 
warfare  had  lost  but  sixty  or  seventy  killed  out- 
right and  five  hundred  wounded.  Four-fifths  of 
the  wounds  were  of  a  peculiarly  superficial  char- 
acter. Our  soldier  of  the  cafe  had  no  temper  at 
all  for  fighting  in  the  open,  and  he  always  lay 
behind  the  mountain  ridges.  If  a  bullet  hit  a 
piece  of  rock  the  splinters  thrown  up  might  cause 
an  abrasion  of  the  face  or  the  scalp  which,  no 
matter  how  slight  it  was,  sufficed  to  send  him  to 
the  rear. 

Half  of  the  wounded  on  the  transport  from 
Volo  in  which  I  came  to  Athens  were  as  good  as 
well.  I  saw  a  number  of  them  permanently  re- 
move their  bandages,  revealing  only  small  scabs. 
Most  of  the  body  wounds  had  been  received  by 
nien  in  flight.  When  the  Turks  ran  down  from 
their  ridge  toward  the  ridge  occupied  by  the 
Greeks,  the  Greeks  usually  bolted  before  the 
Turks  reached  the  hollow  between  the  two  ridges. 


I04         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Had  the  Greeks  stood  their  ground  such  Turks 
as  were  not  killed  in  clambering  up  the  incline 
would  have  been  too  short  of  breath  to  have 
handled  a  bayonet  with  any  force  when  the  op- 
portunity for  using  it  came.  Sometimes  the 
pursuers  ran  a  little  faster  than  the  pursued, 
reaching  the  position  occupied  by  the  Greeks 
before  the  Greeks  reached  the  ridge  beyond, 
and  then  they  had  a  moment's  opportunity  to 
hit  the  Greeks  in  their  backs. 

Up  to  the  battle  of  Domoko  our  surgeons  met 
with  no  bayonet  wounds  and  with  not  more 
than  a  score  of  gunshot  wounds.  The  enemy's 
bullet  was  so  easily  extracted,  it  made  such  a 
clean,  small  wound  which  healed  so  quickly,  and 
all  wounds  resembled  one  another  so  closely,  that 
surgeons  who  had  come  from  France,  Germany 
and  England  to  gain  experience  soon  found  their 
work  a  grind  far  more  commonplace  than  the 
routine  of  accidents  in  hospitals  at  home.  There 
was  a  general  scramble  among  them  for  the 
favor  of  attending  any  soldier  who  had  a  gun- 
shot wound,  and  a  private  with  a  jagged  piece  of 
shell  still  in  his  thigh  alone  of  all  the  wounded 
that  I  saw  in  the  Athenian  hospitals  seemed  to 
be  suffering  acutely. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         105 

Grizzled  shepherds,  who  had  tramped  many 
miles  to  Athens,  came  to  the  bulletins  outside 
the  hospitals  and  falteringly  spelled  out  the 
names  of  their  sons.  Then  they  went  inside  to 
kiss  their  sons,  and  if  the  doctor  bade  them  not 
to  chatter  both  father  and  son  would  look  at 
each  other  in  silence  and  thumb  their  beads. 
The  shuck,  shuck  of  the  beads  was  the  only 
sound  to  be  heard  in  the  room  for  serious  wounds, 
where  all  the  faces  were  as  white  as  the  sheets 
and  all  of  the  bodies  lay  stretched  out  flat  on  the 
cots. 

Through  an  interpreter  I  asked  a  little  Evzoni 
with  a  bullet  hole  in  his  leg  how  it  felt  to  be 
wounded. 

"  Something  stung  me,"  he  said.  **  I  put  my 
hand  to  the  spot  and  then  I  held  it  up  quick,  like 
that,  and  it  was  covered  with  blood.  Then  I  was 
very  much  frightened  for  fear  I  was  going  to  die, 
but  soon  I  found  I  wasn't  going  to  die.  It 
didn't  hurt  much,  after  all,  and  I  am  glad  I  was 
wounded.  The  doctor  took  the  bullet  out  and 
gave  it  to  me  and  I'll  take  it  home  to  show  to 
all  my  friends  in  the  caf^." 

Over  each  cot  was  hung  a  small  lithograph  of 
the  Virgin   Mary,  a   present    from    the   Queen. 


io6         Going  to -War  in  Greece 

Her  Majesty  came  to  the  hospital  day  after  day 
to  go  away  in  tears  caused  by  the  open  re- 
proaches, even  insults  of  the  soldiers,  who  believed 
with  the  Cafe  de  la  Constitution  that  the  royal 
family  had  betrayed  their  country — which  they 
never  considered  as  being  hers  also.  As  a  Rus- 
sian she  was  hated  even  more  bitterly  than  her 
easy-going  Danish  husband. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

UPON  returning,  after  three  days,  to  the  Volo 
which  was  so  lately  in  a  violent  panic, 
I  found  it  gay  and  flippant.  If  Colonel 
Smollenske's  rifle-pits  and  batteries,  as  far  away 
as  five  miles,  failed  to  keep  the  Turks  off  it  could 
fall  back  upon  the  Greek  fleet  which  had  arrived 
in  the  harbor  and  cleared  decks  for  action,  ready 
to  put  a  girdle  of  shell  fire  around  the  town 
whenever  the  admiral  said  the  word.  It  was 
reported  in  well-informed  circles,  however,  that 
the  fleet  had  no  ammunition,  and  for  the  sake  of 
its  reputation  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  rumor 
was  true. 

Before  the  war  the  fleet  had  promised  equally 
great  things  with  the  invasion  of  Epirus  by  the 
division  of  the  army  under  Colonel  Manos  at 
Arta.  Manos  was  back  again  at  Arta  whence  he 
had  started,  and  the  fleet  which  had  lain  idle, 
when,  unopposed  by  the  Sultan's  navy  that  would 


io8         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

not  float,  it  might  have  bombarded  Salonica  or 
occupied  Turkish  islands,  now  gained  dubious  im- 
portance as  a  weapon  of  defense. 

Foreign  men-of-war  had  sailed  into  the  harbor 
behind  it  to  protect  foreigners  and  their  property, 
and  the  officers  and  men  must  be  entertained. 
Hotels  reopened  for  the  busiest  time  of  their 
existences.  Wounded  Turkish  prisoners  were 
placed  on  a  cart  drawn  by  unwounded  Turkish 
prisoners  and  escorted  about  the  streets  by  the 
rabble  of  the  quays.  At  night  a  Greek  battleship 
threw  a  searchlight  over  the  mountainsides  to 
spy  out  any  movement  by  the  enemy  under 
cover  of  darkness  ;  gilt  braid  added  more  color  to 
the  quaint  little  cafes  ;  the  oars  of  the  men-of- 
war's  boats  lighted  the  bay  with  a  brilliant 
phosphorescence ;  and  there  was  even  talk  of 
organizing  a  vaudeville  out  of  the  material  at 
hand. 

My  own  great  interest  in  Volo  was  the  recovery 
of  my  pony,  Kitso.  The  landlord  of  the  hotel 
had  given  him  into  the  charge  of  another  man 
who  had  lent  him  to  a  priest  who  preferred  not 
to  carry  out  his  inspection  of  the  army  on  foot. 
I  followed  the  priest  by  inquiry  all  day  and  finally 
overtook  him  just  as   he  reached    Volo    on    his 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  109 

return.  I  hugged  Kitso,  who  pounded  the  earth 
with  his  forefoot  and  rubbed  his  nose  against  my 
arm,  meaning  to  say,  I  thought :  "  You  didn't 
throw  me  over  after  all,  old  pal.  By  hooky ! 
I'll  get  a  big  pail  of  barley  and  have  my  back 
rubbed  with  a  currycomb,  now." 

Our  new  battle  line  extended  along  some 
twenty-five  miles  of  mountain  ridges  overlooking 
the  southern  side  of  the  upper  plain  of  Thessaly. 
Colonel  SmoUenske  was  in  command  of  the  troops 
immediately  about  Velestino,  a  village  at  the 
edge  of  the  plain  some  three  miles  from  the 
mouth  of  the  pass  leading  to  Volo.  The  Crown 
Prince  had  his  headquarters  at  Pharsala  and  the 
bulk  of  the  troops  was  under  his  immediate  com- 
mand. SmoUenske  had  had  no  difficulty  in  bring- 
ing off  all  of  his  guns.  His  troops  were  in  every 
respect  in  better  condition  than  those  of  the 
main  division.  At  Pharsala  for  the  first  two  or 
three  days  there  existed  a  sort  of  anarchy 
tempered  by  a  general  inertia.  Once  the  Crown 
Prince's  carriage  was  surrounded  by  angry  sol- 
diers who  demanded  food.  For  a  moment  assas- 
sination was  feared,  but  the  staff  officer  with  a 
political  future  gave  the  leading  malcontents  a 
gentle  push  and  they  fell  back.     Many  of  the  in- 


no         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

fantrymen  had  thrown  away  their  rifles  and 
water  bottles  in  the  panic,  besides  their  blankets 
which  were  sadly  needed  for  the  cold,  damp 
nights. 

A  businesslike  commissariat  could  have  pro- 
vided the  Crown  Prince's  army  immediately  with 
mutton  and  cheese,  and  with  bread  in  a  few 
hours.  Pharsala  was  connected  with  Volo  by 
the  branch  of  the  Thessalian  railway  running 
from  Velestino  to  Kalabaka,  just  in  the  rear  of 
our  new  lines.  Volo  being  still  the  self-evident 
base  of  supplies,  as  soon  as  the  Crown  Prince  had 
decided  to  retreat,  arrangements  could  easily  have 
been  made  for  their  transportation.  Indeed,  I 
am  not  loth  to  say  that  the  space  occupied  in  the 
trains  by  the  prime  minister,  his  friends  and 
numerous  other  hangers-on  who  went  out  to  in- 
spect the  army,  might  better  have  been  used  for 
their  weight  in  loaves  of  bread.  However,  the 
army  was  not  in  a  starving  condition,  as  re- 
ported. After  the  first  two  days,  though  the 
food  was  not  plentiful  or  hygienic,  it  was  suffi- 
cient to  subsist  upon. 

The  enemy  came  on  very  slowly.  He  first  ap- 
peared in  front  of  Pharsala,  engaging  the  Evzoni 
and  the  Foreign  Legion,  which  had  remained  on 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         1 1 1 

the  plain  of  Mati  true  to  their  duty.  Conduct- 
ing themselves  with  courage  equal  to  that  of  the 
Foreign  Legion,  the  Evzoni  suffered  even  greater 
loss.  The  Crown  Prince  must  have  seen  this 
little  force  fighting  its  way  to  the  cover  of  the 
mountains  under  the  heavy  fire  of  vastly  supe- 
rior numbers,  which  were  gaining  on  it  because 
it  had  neither  the  aid  of  Red  Cross  men  nor 
of  stretchers  to  carry  its  increasing  number  of 
wounded ;  but  he  sent  out  no  succor  whatsoever. 

Later  events  made  me  very  glad  that  I  had 
chosen  to  be  with  Colonel  Smollenske's  rather 
than  the  Crown  Prince's  division.  First,  recon- 
noitering  parties  of  Turkish  cavalry  appeared  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Velestino  ;  then,  advancing 
in  a  leisurely  manner,  so  large  a  force  appeared 
on  Smollenske's  right  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of 
Edhem  Pasha's  intention  to  force  his  way 
through  to  Volo.  From  Volo  his  troops  could 
have  moved  along  the  seashore  and  around  the 
mountains  to  our  rear.  Then,  by  flanking  the 
Crown  Prince's  left,  he  might  even  have  hoped 
to  force  the  army  of  Greece  to  capitulate. 

But  the  determined  and  unskillful  attempt  of 
his  infantry  to  take  our  rifle-pits  near  the  pass 
completely  failed,  and  the  more  determined  and 


1 1 2         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

more  unskillful  attempt  to  take  a  battery  in  the 
rear  by  a  cavalry  charge  proved  to  be  as  merciless 
and  costly  as  the  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade. 
Two  or  three  of  the  Turkish  infantrymen  actu- 
ally succeeded  in  reaching  the  pits,  where  they 
were  bayoneted  and  tossed  out.  For  a  few  mo- 
ments the  advance  halted,  hanging  grimly  to 
the  ground  which  it  had  taken  ;  but  a  steady 
stream  of  bullets  pouring  from  the  concealed 
Greeks  was  more  than  even  Turkish  courage 
could  stand  and  it  retreated  with  a  loss  of  prob- 
ably a  fourth  of  its  numbers. 

That  the  men  in  the  rifle-pits  held  their 
ground  was  testimony  to  the  superior  spirit  of 
Smollenske's  troops,  though  the  number  of  dead, 
considering  the  Greeks'  opportunity,  was  no  com- 
pliment to  their  marksmanship.  The  comparative 
ease  with  which  the  Turks  were  driven  back  was  a 
sufficient  exemplification  of  the  absurdity  of  try- 
ing to  take  earthworks  by  storm  in  front  under 
modern  conditions  unless  a  general  is  willing  to 
crowd  in  reserves  at  the  rear  until  butchery  gains 
his  object. 

As  for  the  cavalry  charge,  it  gave  the  impres- 
sion that  Edhem  Pasha's  bloodthirsty  Circassian 
horsemen,  chafing  under  the  exactions  of  moun- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         113 

tain  warfare,  had  prevailed  upon  him  to  give 
them  a  task  of  a  downright  hazardous  nature, 
which  would  show  the  rest  of  the  army  the  stuff 
that  real  Circassians  are  made  of ;  and  that 
Edhem  in  an  accommodating  spirit  had  told 
them  to  take  in  the  rear  our  battery  on  a  high 
knoll  to  the  left  and  rear  of  Velestino.  This 
battery,  as  our  batteries  often  were,  was  planted 
in  a  field  of  barley  which  had  just  headed.  Vel- 
estino was  in  our  hands  and  we  had  some  infan- 
try in  front  of  it,  though  we  had  withdrawn  from 
two  villages  a  little  farther  out.  Up  on  the 
mountain  side  to  the  left  of  the  barley  field  bat- 
tery was  a  two  gun  battery,  while  to  the  rear  of 
it  were  still  two  more  guns.  These  as  well  as  six 
or  seven  hundred  rifles  could  play  upon  any  ob- 
ject advancing  within  two  thousand  yards  of  the 
object  of  attack. 

The  first  intimation  that  the  spectator  had  of 
the  charge  was  a  dark,  snakelike  streak  approach- 
ing Velestino,  which  field  glasses  revealed  as  two 
squadrons  of  cavalry.  At  the  distance  of  a  mile 
they  burst  into  a  dead  gallop,  and  we  played 
on  them  with  all  the  force  of  guns  and  musketry 
that  could  be  brought  to  bear,  and  the  effect  was 
soon  evident.     The  Circassians  replied  by  spur- 


114         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

ring  their  horses  straight  up  the  hillside  and  ris- 
ing in  their  saddles  and  shooting  as  they  rode. 
Despite  their  boasts  of  remarkable  marksmanship, 
in  this  style  of  practice  it  had  practically  no 
effect  upon  our  gunners  and  rifle-pits  when  a 
critical  test  came. 

Before  the  battalion  was  half  way  up  the  knoll 
the  failure  of  the  charge  was  apparent,  but  those 
cavalrymen  with  unimpeded  and  unwounded 
horses  still  held  to  their  purpose  with  a  grand 
courage  and  coolness.  The  cross  fire  and  the 
narrowing  of  the  direct  course  to  the  object  of 
attack  brought  the  horses  too  close  together  for 
practical  purposes.  A  wounded  horse  that  fell 
checked  the  career  of  horses  behind  him,  and 
their  rearing  and  plunging  forced  horses  and  men 
together  in  a  tumult  which  was  a  wriggling,  dark 
target  (when  not  obscured  by  the  dust  and  smoke 
caused  by  bursting  shells)  for  the  Greek  riflemen, 
little  harassed  by  wild  Turkish  artillery  fire,  who 
fired  as  fast  as  they  could.  Wounded  Circas- 
sians with  wounded  horses  tried  to  climb  upon 
riderless  horses.  Some  riderless  horses  bolted 
right  up  to  the  battery  itself.  For  a  moment 
the  battalion  stopped  in  a  crux  as  if  one  living 
being  in  its  death  agonies,  and  then  every  man 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         115 

with  a  sound  horse  under  him  turned  and  rode 
back  as  fast  as  he  could,  perhaps  to  fall  by  the 
fire  that  followed  fiendishly  after  him. 

With  a  mighty  cheer  the  Greek  riflemen 
swarmed  like  ants  out  of  their  earthworks  to- 
ward the  knoll.  ''  This  is  what  we  thought  war 
would  be  like!"  they  exclaimed  in  their  glee. 
Smollenske  in  half  an  hour  had  become  the 
national  hero,  and  his  eyes  might  well  twinkle  as, 
with  his  accustomed  smiling  calm,  he  received  a 
little  red  flag  with  a  white  crescent  and  a  white 
star  and  a  silk  embroidered  cap  of  a  Circassian 
captain  as  trophies  of  his  success.  A  highly- 
colored  story  of  the  action  was  telegraphed  to 
Athens  and  as  soon  as  possible  his  portrait  was 
hung  up  in  the  shop  windows  and  pictures  of  the 
glorious  victory  as  drawn  by  an  Athenian  artist 
were  for  sale  in  the  streets.  When  I  saw  the  colo- 
nel in  his  tent  on  a  hill  to  the  rear  of  Velestino 
he  divided  an  orange  with  me  as  of  yore  and  said 
that  he  thought  the  Circassians  had  lost  half  of 
their  number,  which  is  considered  an  overesti- 
mate, I  believe. 

The  wounded  Circassians  left  on  the  knoll 
looked  down  in  shame,  uttered  no  groans  and 
meekly  obeyed  the  commands  of  their  captors. 


1 1 6         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Some  of  the  killed  had  been  struck  in  vital  spots 
both  by  fragments  of  shells  and  by  bullets.  Such 
of  the  wounded  cavalry  horses  wandering  about 
in  dumb  agony  as  were  injured  past  recovery  were 
shot.  One  took  up  his  position  in  the  succulent 
barley  fields  which  was  a  hospital  bed  and  soup  to 
him,  until,  after  three  days  of  convalescence,  he 
dashed  off  to  the  Turkish  line.  When  the 
Greeks  went  out  to  bury  the  Turkish  dead  the 
enemy  at  first  fired  on  them  by  mistake. 

In  bloodshed  the  rest  of  the  fighting  along  the 
line  from  Pharsala  to  Velestino  was  compara- 
tively child's  play.  The  rifle-pits  at  the  left  of 
Velestino  fired  desultorily  at  the  Turkish  rifle- 
pits  and  the  Turkish  rifle-pits  answered  when 
they  were  in  the  mood.  Edhem  Pasha  was  play- 
ing us  with  shell  fire  in  the  same  eccentric  man- 
ner as  he  had  when  he  wished  to  hold  the  atten- 
tion of  our  right  and  centre  at  Mati,  only  experi- 
ence had  made  him  economical  and  he  was  using 
less  ammunition.  Turkish  gunnery  had  not  im- 
proved. Artillerymen  were  in  danger  only  when 
the  enemy  aimed  at  the  rifle-pits,  and  the  rifle-pits 
were  in  danger  only  when  the  enemy  aimed  at 
the  battery.  Water  carriers  and  loiterers  who 
might  be  in  the  outer  rings  of  the  target  had  the 
most  reason  for  fear. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         1 1 7 

Watching  this  mimic  warfare  which  sent  no 
wounded  or  dead  to  the  rear  soon  ceased  to 
be  as  interesting  as  the  stork  on  the  minaret 
of  the  ruined  mosque  at  Velestino.  In  all  of 
the  Thessalian  villages  storks  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  fast  tumbling  minarets,  and  the 
stork  at  Velestino  was  a  most  phlegmatic  fel- 
low. No  booming  of  guns  or  rattle  of  musketry 
disturbed  the  perfect  equanimity  with  which  he 
poised  himself  on  one  long,  slim  leg,  his  neck 
drawn  down  so  far  that  his  great  beak  seemed  to 
be  fastened  between  his  wings.  As  a  philosophic 
tenant  who  did  not  pay  rent,  in  the  event  of 
Thessaly  falling  again  under  Turkish  rule,  he 
could  simply  transfer  his  nest  to  the  steeple  of 
a  Greek  church  which  in  its  turn  would  then  be 
going  to  ruin. 

The  ridges  from  Velestino  to  Pharsala  instead 
of  running  parallel  with  the  plain  as  on  the  late 
frontier,  for  the  most  part  ran  at  right  angles  to 
the  plain,  thus  offering  the  hollows  as  a  purchase 
for  a  quick  surprise  movement  which,  once  it 
gained  possession  of  a  ridge,  would  have  the 
enemy  on  the  flank  forcing  him  to  reform  his 
line  of  battle.  Some  five  miles  west  of  Velestino 
were  hollows  and  ridges  better  suited  than  any 


1 1 8         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

others  along  the  range  for  capture  by  storm. 
Colonel  Smollenske,  who  was  not  fond  of  exer- 
cise, never  rode  along  the  mountain  path  over 
this  part  of  his  position.  There  was  no  adequate 
map  of  it  and  the  officers  made  none.  The  line 
of  troops  that  had  been  placed  there  was  thinner 
than  at  any  other  point  between  Velestino  and 
Pharsala.  Edhem  Pasha  took  these  ridges  not 
suddenly  by  moonlight,  but  by  one  of  his  cus- 
tomary daylight  surprises  which  always  deceived 
the  Greek  generals. 

After  his  disasters  Edhem  Pasha,  changing  his 
plan  of  attack,  withdrew  all  of  his  forces  from 
our  right  and  centre,  giving  up  a  village  on  the 
plain  just  beyond  Velestino,  which  we  then  un- 
necessarily occupied  by  a  force  that  must  retreat 
directly  we  were  attacked  again  either  on  the 
centre  or  on  the  right.  Owing  to  absolutely  no 
cover  on  the  plain  to  the  right  of  Velestino, 
where  military  operations  were  bounded  by  lake 
Karla,  ten  miles  distant,  it  was  easily  ascertain- 
able that  the  enemy  in  his  new  position  could 
engage  us  on  the  right  only  after  a  march  of  ten 
or  fifteen  miles.  But  Colonel  Smollenske  re- 
moved no  guns  and  scarcely  any  troops  from  his 
right  and  centre  to  protect  his  left,  which  had 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         119 

been  much  weaker  from  the  first  on  account  of 
the  expected  struggle  at  the  mouth  of  the  pass. 
Had  he  feared  another  and  a  surprise  move- 
ment on  the  pass,  a  system  of  signals  or  of 
cavalry  scouts  could  have  almost  instantly  ap- 
prised him  of  it. 

While  here  as  elsewhere  there  was  a  good 
road  for  a  retreat,  but  no  lateral  roads,  yet  the 
mountain  passes  allowed  of  a  fairly  rapid  move- 
ment from  one  part  of  the  line  to  another.  En- 
durance and  marching  were  the  qualities  most 
boasted  of  by  the  Greek  officers  in  comparing 
their  privates  with  the  soldiers  of  other  armies. 
Had  not  two  untrained  peasant  boys  from  the 
fields,  beaten  by  the  Western  trained  athletes  in 
all  tests  of  momentary  strength,  easily  beaten 
them  in  turn  in  the  long  race  from  Marathon? 

At  all  events,  it  was  better  for  SmoUenske  at 
a  trying  moment  in  defensive  operations  to  run 
a  little  risk  of  being  flanked  on  his  right  than  to 
leave  his  left  in  such  a  condition  that  it  was  cer- 
tain to  be  flanked — for  SmoUenske  may  be  se- 
riously criticised  because  he  has  too  much  ability 
to  be  treated  with  that  whimsicality  which  in 
general  best  suits  an  account  of  the  doings  of  the 
Army    of  the  Cafe.       His  leadership   inculcated 


1 20         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

some  measure  of  spirit  among  his  troops.  He 
could  apply  the  knowledge  he  had  acquired  at 
school  inxJF ranee  in  forming  a  battle  line.  But 
being  by  nature  oriental,  he  could  not  see  the 
necessity  of  changing  his  plan  of  battle  in  cer- 
tain details  in  accordance  with  the  change  of 
conditions  or  of  rapid  or  sudden  movements. 
Being  an  European  trained  oriental,  he  had  not 
studied  his  orient  well  enough  to  know  that  the 
oriental  is  not  given  to  night  attacks  or  any  other 
form  of  surprise.  He  had  failed  to  remember 
that  while  the  Russo-Turkish  war  had  shown  the 
Turk  to  be  the  most  tenacious  of  face-to-face 
fighters,  it  had  also  shown  him  to  be  incurable 
of  a  prejudice  against  a  night  picket  service,  and 
therefore  subject  to  surprises  by  very  simple 
ruses.  Edhem  Pasha  was  a  Turk,  but  withal  an 
individual ;  and  no  Greek  commander  studied  the 
characteristics  of  method  peculiar  to  the  general 
opposed  to  him. 

For  these  reasons  Colonel  Smollenske  may  not 
justly  lay  all  of  the  blame  on  the  Crown  Prince 
because  the  army  of  Greece  retreated  again  on 
May  6th,  the  date  which  Edhem  Pasha  had  de- 
cided upon. 

After  coffee  on  the  morning  of  the  sixth  the 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         i  2 1 

desultory  firing  on  the  immediate  left  of  Veles- 
tino  gained  in  volume,  and  a  large  force  of  Turks 
followed  by  the  Turkish  cavalry  was  seen  mov- 
ing toward  the  weak  point  of  our  lines  until  they 
disappeared  behind  a  mountain  spur.  Our  rifle- 
pit  which  had  been  so  effectual  in  checking  the 
mad  horsemen  who  had  tried  to  take  a  battery 
in  the  rear  began  to  fire  volleys  at  the  Turkish 
rifle-pits,  and  the  Turkish  riflemen  answered  in 
an  indirect  and  rather  supercilious  manner  by  de- 
voting all  their  attention  to  the  gunners  on  the 
height  a  littleiarther  to  the  left.  In  a  short  time 
the  firing  from  the  extreme  left  became  much 
heavier  than  that  in  the  vicinity  of  Velestino ; 
but  no  movement  of  reserves  to  the  left  was 
noticeable. 

Attracted  by  this  activity,  invisible  to  us  on 
account  of  the  intervening  ridges,  with  two  com- 
panions, Mr.  Wright,  an  artist  of  the  Illustrated 
London  News,  and  Mr.  H.  W.  Blundell,  who  was 
purely  a  spectator,  I  rode  off  in  that  direction. 
Gradually  the  zigzag  bridle  path  led  us  to  the 
rear  as  we  passed  over  ridge  after  ridge,  bringing 
nearer  and  nearer  the  rattle  of  musketry  which 
always  exasperatingly  continued  to  be  hidden  by 
the  crest  of  some  spur  just  in  front  of  us.     When 


122         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

water  carriers  had  been  turning  back  for  the  last 
mile,  we  were  convinced  that  the  crest  of  the 
next  ridge  would  surely  afford  the  view  that  we 
sought ;  but  from  its  summit  we  saw  only  several 
bands  of  Irregulars  swarming  in  retreat  along  the 
path  and  over  the  mountain  sides.  Some  of 
them  took  hold  of  the  bridles  of  our  ponies 
and  crying  "  Turcos !  "  pointed  to  the  ridge  just 
beyond. 

While  my  companions  were  to  make  sand- 
wiches out  of  the  bread  and  meat  in  our 
saddle-bags,  I  volunteered  to  go  up  the  ridge 
mentioned  by  the  Irregulars.  The  ascent  made, 
I  could  see  no  sign  of  life  on  the  next  crest. 
For  the  last  ten  minutes  all  of  the  firing  had 
seemed  to  come  from  the  ridges  below  nearer 
the  plain,  where  we  had  already  seen  some  Re- 
serves straggling  along  toward  Velestino.  We 
thought  they  had  been  scared  by  the  retreat  of 
the  Irregulars  and  had  slipped  out  of  their  offi- 
cers* hands.  The  spot  where  I  was  standing  was 
a  mile  to  the  rear  of  an  imaginary  straight  line 
drawn  from  Velestino. 

My  conclusion  that  the  ridge  just  in  front  of 
me  was  unoccupied  was  shattered  a  few  seconds 
after  it  was  reached  by  puffs  of  smoke  blown  out 


Going  to  War  in  Greece  123 

from  the  little  clumps  of  bushes  on  the  ridge, 
followed  by  four  or  five  bumblebees  coming  un- 
comfortably near  to  my  ears.  It  is  folly  to 
allow  skilful  sharpshooters  the  opportunity  to 
draw  a  bead  on  one.  But  in  the  face  of  a  number 
of  rifle  barrels  in  front  of  red  fezzes  even  at  a  hun- 
dred yards  it  is  unwise  to  move  about.  If  you  do 
you  stand  a  chance  of  being  hit  by  some  of  the 
bullets  which  may  go  approximately  near  to  the 
target.  So  stepping  directly  back  I  stooped, 
and  was  well  covered  just  at  the  moment  when 
mine  enemy  sent  a  volley  buzz-buzzing  over  my 
head,  probably  meant  for  the  band  of  Irregulars 
that  he  thought  must  be  under  my  command. 
Investigation  of  the  source  of  a  bullet  coming 
from  behind  which  went  splip  against  a  rock  at 
my  side  revealed  a  band  of  Irregulars  on  the  hill 
beyond  firing  directly  over  my  ridge  at  the  in- 
visible Turks  on  the  opposite  ridge.  Apparently 
my  companions  and  I  had  made  this  long  ride 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  between  the  advanc- 
ing enemy  and  the  retreating  Greeks,  without 
gaining  any  view  of  the  extraordinary  movement 
which  had  flanked  Colonel  SmoUenske. 

But  in  a  land  of  uncertainty  the    unexpected 
is  always  to  be  expected.      Looking  at  the  ridges 


1 24         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

toward  the  plain  I  saw  a  vivid  tableau  of  the 
Army  of  the  Cafe  making  war.  The  Greeks  in 
disorder  were  skurrying  down  one  side  of  a  ridge 
and  the  Turks  were  climbing  up  the  other  side 
in  hot  pursuit.  A  yell  directly  in  front  re- 
minded me  of  the  fellows  who  had  sent  me  a 
swarm  of  bees,  but  no  honey.  Fezzes  and  baggy 
trousers  had  sprung  from  their  hiding-places  with 
a  yell  and  they  were  clambering  down  the  slope 
toward  my  ridge  like  so  many  red-headed  turtles, 
making  me  feel  forcibly  the  lack  of  facilities 
which  might  confront  a  correspondent  who  was 
taken  prisoner. 

My  companions  had  postponed  their  prepara- 
tions for  luncheon  until  they  should  be  more  cer- 
tain of  their  position.  When  I  reached  them 
they  had  the  ponies  ready  to  mount.  We  hesi- 
tated to  follow  the  regular  path  lest  it  should 
lead  us  into  the  open  arms  of  the  Turk,  and  ac- 
cordingly laid  out  a  course  of  our  own  straight 
over  the  mountains.  As  we  were  passing  over 
the  next  ridge  a  bullet  or  two  splashing  at  our 
ponies'  feet,  as  well  as  the  echo  of  a  yell,  reminded 
us  that  the  Turks  had  taken  the  ridge  under 
whose  kindly  protection  we  had  intended  to  eat 
a  sandwich  in   peace.     Mr.  Wright   dismounted 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         125 

and  went  back  for  a  better  view  and  was  shot  at 
for  his  trouble. 

It  was  then  about  one  o'clock  and  at  two 
o'clock  the  Crown  Prince  had  telegraphed  orders 
to  Colonel  Smollenske  to  fall  back  on  Armyro, 
which  was  some  fifteen  miles  to  the  rear  near  the 
sea.  Colonel  Smollenske  in  his  report  protested 
against  this  order,  saying  that  there  was  no 
necessity  for  his  retreat  when  his  lines  were  in  an 
excellent  position  to  wage  battle.  To  this  day,  I 
believe  the  Greek  people  accept  this,  their  hero's, 
view.  But  the  experience  of  my  friends  and  my- 
self convinces  me  that  if  the  colonel's  intention 
was  not  to  retreat  of  his  own  accord,  then  the 
Crown  Prince's  order  came  just  in  time  to  save 
the  army  from  a  calamity. 

With  all  gratitude  for  the  oranges  he  has 
divided  with  me,  I  confess  that  the  colonel  has 
some  talent  for  politics. 

One  hour  before  he  received  the  order  to  fall 
back,  as  we  had  such  an  excellent  opportunity 
for  knowing,  only  the  flying  Irregulars  remained 
between  the  Turks,  who  were  more  than  even 
with  his  own  headquarters,  and  their  possession 
of  the  railroad  between  Velestino  and  Pharsala. 
Edhem  Pasha  had  cut  the  Greek  lines  in  two. 


1 26         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

separating  the  forces  of  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Colonel  Smollenske  for  good  and  all,  and  flank- 
ing both.  As  on  the  other  mountain  range,  he 
had  engaged  our  whole  force  with  a  nominal  at- 
tack while  he  had  hammered  with  all  the  men 
that  he  could  spare  on  a  certain  position. 

The  slight  opposition  of  two  mountain  guns,  a 
few  riflemen  and  five  hundred  Irregulars  (whose 
incapacity  was  already  well  demonstrated)  had 
made  this  success  the  least  costly  of  any  that 
the  Turks  had  gained.  It  is  said  that  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Colonel  Smollenske  each  thought  that 
the  other  ought  to  defend  this  weak  point,  with 
which  neither  was  familiar  either  by  report  or  by 
personal  examination.  Three  days  previous,  a 
foreign  military  attache  had  drawn  three  simple 
lines — a  straight  line,  then  a  straight  line  bent 
back  on  the  left,  and  a  line  to  the  rear — illus- 
trating Edhem  Pasha's  second  scheme  of  attack, 
and  the  correspondents  and  attaches  who  saw  it 
at  the  time  had  agreed  with  him. 

Before  two  o'clock  my  companions  and  I  were 
back  on  one  of  the  highest  ridges  overlooking 
the  village  of  Velestino,  and  at  this  late  hour  we 
saw  reserves  being  moved  over  toward  the  ad- 
vancing enemy.     Some  of  this  reinforcement  en- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         127 

gaged  the  enemy  for  a  brief  period,  which  was 
followed  by  silence  and  then  the  heavy  yell  of 
the  Turks  who  had  taken  another  ridge  well 
around  to  our  rear. 

I  became  interested  for  the  moment  in  an 
officer  on  one  of  the  farthermost  ridges,  a  dwarf, 
as  seen  through  the  field  glasses,  outlined  clearly 
against  the  sky  and  gesticulating  feverishly  to- 
ward the  rear.  But  the  mule  driver,  allowed  too 
much  freedom,  did  not  come  to  take  away  the 
one  mountain  gun  which  constituted  the  officer's 
sacred  honor,  and  the  officer  remained  bravely  at 
his  post  until  he  disappeared  in  the  swarm  of 
Turks  that  came  over  the  hill,  while  we  who 
looked  on  listened  for  the  yell  of  triumph  which 
we  knew  was  floating  over  the  ridges  and  hollows. 

Smollenske's  retreat  was  skilfully  made  and 
unfolded  itself  like  a  panorama  from  the  heights 
where  we  were  standing.  We  saw  the  first 
movement,  which  was  the  drawing  off  of  those 
Reserves  and  guns  on  his  right  which  had  been 
so  unfortunately  inactive.  Then  followed  such 
other  guns  and  troops  as  were  obscured  from 
the  enemy's  view  behind  a  line  of  ammunition 
and  commissariat  donkeys,  whose  slow,  melan- 
choly pace  now  seemed  a  part  of  the  sad  busi- 


128         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

ness.  Reserves  who  had  been  moved  forward  to 
the  left  came  scrambling  down  over  the  rocks  to 
the  path  to  form  into  company  order.  Company 
joined  company,  moving  on  in  the  obscurity  of 
the  valley  until  they  formed  a  long  blue  line 
winding  over  the  path  toward  Armyro.  As  the 
lines  on  the  foremost  ridges  in  contact  with  the 
enemy  fell  back  companies  on  the  ridge  behind 
covered  their  retreat. 

We  pitied  the  gray-haired  officer  whose  com- 
pany came  up  to  the  crest  which  thus  far  had 
been  our  own  province.  He  had  lost  his  lieuten- 
ants, either  by  death  or  by  desertion.  His  men 
stopped  in  the  valley  to  argue  with  him.  When  he 
seemed  to  have  persuaded  them  of  the  necessity 
of  obeying  his  orders,  he  started  up  the  ascent. 
After  he  had  gone  a  dozen  steps  he  realized  that 
they  had  not  stirred  and  that  he  was  quite  alone. 
He  went  back  again  to  argue  with  a  command 
every  man  of  which  considered  himself  a  strate- 
gist by  the  right  invested  in  him  by  the  generous 
rule  of  the  Cafe  de  la  Constitution  in  Athens. 
Eventually,  a  third  of  them  refused  to  follow  him 
at  all.  On  reaching  the  crest  it  took  several 
minutes  to  convince  the  two-thirds  that  one  big 
rock  was  not  the  best  breastworks  for   the  lot, 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         129 

though  at  the  time  not  so  much  as  the  singing 
of  a  spent  bullet  was  heard. 

Experience  had  taught  our  own  little  party  the 
advisability  of  a  traveling  base  of  supplies  of  our 
own,  and  this  was  a  small  tug  with  a  crew  of  char- 
acteristic Athenians  waiting  in  the  bay  at  Stak- 
asi  near  Armyro.  For  the  sake  of  speed  we  did 
not  take  the  road  of  the  regular  retreat  but  that 
followed  by  some  straggling  Reserves,  who  had 
thrown  away  their  guns  and  were  weakly  stum- 
bling along,  and  by  the  petticoat  Irregulars,  who 
stopped  and  fired  their  rifles  under  our  ponies* 
noses  at  some  imaginary  object  which  they  must 
have  thought  to  be  a  Turk.  We  reached  the 
shore  opposite  the  tug  without  any  other  of  the 
inconveniences  of  the  retreat  from  Mati,  and 
the  next  morning  were  in  Athens  with  our  tele- 
grams. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

GAY  and  trustful  Volo  had  seen  all  of  its 
much  boasted  precautions  for  defense 
pass  away  in  a  day.  The  evening  after 
SmoUenske's  retreat  from  the  mouth  of  the  pass 
the  foreign  consuls,  I  am  told,  went  out,  lanterns 
in  hand,  to  hold  a  parley  with  Edhem  Pasha. 
He  promised  to  occupy  the  town  without  dam- 
age to  property,  particularly  to  foreign  property, 
provided  that  the  Greek  fleet  withdrew  from  the 
bay.  As  the  fleet  was  still  short  of  ammunition 
and  only  too  glad  to  be  accommodating  the  con- 
suls could  easily  agree  to  this  condition,  and  the 
next  day  the  fleet  steamed  down  to  Armyro  to 
make  a  show  of  protecting  SmoUenske's  force. 

Stylida  and  Lamia  succeeded  to  Volo's  posi- 
tion as  the  base  of  supplies  for  the  Crown 
Prince's  army,  which,  having  been  flanked  on  its 
left  at  the  same  time  as  on  its  right  wing,  had 
retreated  across  the  plain  from  Pharsala  to  the 
heights  of  Domoko.     Stylida  is  a  small  port  on 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         131 

the  Gulf  of  Lamia  across  from  Thermopylae, 
connected  with  the  town  of  Lamia  by  a  very 
narrow  gauge  railway  and  by  a  five  mile  ride 
along  a  pleasant  highway.  Lamia  is  beyond  the 
head  of  the  gulf  between  the  mountain  barrier 
in  which  Leonidas  placed  his  trust  and  another 
mountain  barrier  which  separates  it  from  Do- 
moko,  and  on  the  direct  road  from  Domoko  to 
Thermopylae. 

On  entering  the  Gulf  of  Lamia  attention  was 
first  attracted  to  Stylida  by  a  huge  German  flag 
floating  over  a  German  hospital  tent  with  all 
modern  appliances  which,  having  just  arrived 
from  Berlin,  now  waited  almost  impatiently  for 
wounded  from  the  next  battle.  In  the  Gulf  of 
Lamia  as  in  the  Gulf  of  Volo,  government  trans- 
ports found  themselves  in  the  corhpany  of  the 
flotilla  of  the  Army  of  Desolation.  Caiques  filled 
with  refugees,  caiques  stacked  high  with  barley 
which  had  been  gathered  green  to  save  it  from 
the  Turks,  small  sailing-boats  with  all  the  house- 
hold effects  they  could  carry,  and  all  manner  of 
boats  were  leaving  or  preparing  to  leave  for  the 
neighboring  islands  where  already  thousands  of 
their  fellow-sufferers  were  at  the  point  of  starva- 
tion. 


1 3  2         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

At  Lamia  I  saw  the  carriage  which  had  taken 
me  to  Liguria  on  my  way  to  Meluna  Pass.  The 
driver  was  in  a  cheerful  frame  of  mind,  having 
followed  the  rear  of  the  army  with  a  comfortable 
method  of  retreating  for  well-to-do  officers  at 
commensurate  charges.  My  companions  and  my- 
self secured  it  as  a  base  of  supplies  by  the  day 
for  an  indefinite  period.  With  their  baggage  and 
tinned  meats  piled  around  them  and  even  on 
them,  the  London  Thnes^  the  Manchester  Guard- 
ian  and  Mr.  Blundell  started  for  Domoko. 

Both  the  Times  and  the  Guardian  had  had 
two  ponies  at  the  beginning  of  the  campaign,  but 
had  lost  them  through  appropriation  by  the 
government  or  by  a  more  direct  and  less  re- 
sponsible form  of  theft.  When  I  had  reached 
the  shore  at  Stakasi  where  our  tug  was  anchored 
after  the  retreat  from  Velestino,  I  had  been  in 
doubt  whether  it  would  not  be  better  to  shoot 
my  pony  rather  than  to  allow  him  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  some  itinerant  master  who  would  treat 
him  to  kicks  and  curses  instead  of  barley.  With 
some  misgivings  I  had  sent  him  on  to  await  me 
at  Stylida  in  charge  of  a  servant.  Now  I  was 
on  his  back  again,  and  despite  the  hollows  be- 
tween his  ribs,  for  which  I  knew  the  remedy,  he 


"  All  the  household  effects  that  they  could  carry. 


With  their  baggage  and  tinned  meats." 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         133 

was  not  lame  and  was  the  same  reliable  old  com- 
rade not  to  be  exchanged  for  any  place  in  a 
rickety,  cast-off  Parisian  carriage. 

There  is  a  fine  military  road  lately  made  from 
Lamia  to  Domoko,  over  the  Phourka  Pass,  which 
has  been  the  main  artery  of  commerce  between 
Thessaly  and  Greece  proper  and  the  resort  of 
brigands  since  the  dawn  of  history.  Camels, 
which  have  been  bred  and  used  in  small  numbers 
in  Lamia  for  many  years,  were  appropriated  for 
transportation  purposes  by  the  Government. 
They,  and  the  carts  which  Lamia  and  the  army 
could  muster,  followed  the  military  road.  But 
the  heavy-laden  donkeys  went  by  the  old  moun- 
tain path  along  with  the  Reserves  and  the  red- 
shirted  Garibaldian  volunteers  fresh  from  Italy, 
who  toiled  on  and  on  at  midday  and  were  disap- 
pointed again  and  again  at  not  seeing  at  the 
next  turn  of  the  path  the  one  well  in  the  pass 
with  its  shade  and  cool  water,  which  finally  ap- 
peared suddenly  like  a  fairy  with  an  urn  of 
water  in  hand  springing  up  in  front  of  a  thirsty 
traveler  on  a  desert. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  pass  is  a  little  plain 
to  be  crossed  before  reaching  the  heights  of  Do- 
moko.    Here   was   encamped    the  travel-stained 


134         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Army  of  Desolation,  the  peasants  tending  their 
herds  which  they  had  driven  for  so  many  miles, 
and  the  women  cooking,  or  washing  their  clothes 
at  the  brookside  with  the  stone  slabs  at  the  base 
of  the  mountain  ridge  for  washboards.  They 
were  more  fortunate  than  their  comrades  on  the 
islands  in  that  they  had  food. 

Domoko,  a  small  collection  of  houses  on  a  hill- 
side under  an  acropolis  with  a  crumbling  old 
citadel,  was  called  "  wonder  city  "  by  the  ancients 
on  account  of  its  beautiful  situation.  Nature 
does  all  that  she  can  to  make  Domoko  healthy, 
and  man  all  that  he  can  to  make  it  unhealthy. 
An  army  with  no  sanitary  regulations  flocking  in 
quite  turned  the  scale  against  Nature.  The 
little  public  square  was  deep  with  mud,  sewage 
and  the  debris  from  the  butchery  of  sheep.  In 
its  dirty  little  caf^,  thick  with  smoke  which 
could  not  effectually  cover  up  other  smells,  un- 
shaved  officers  in  frayed,  bespattered  uniforms 
were  now  talking  as  gaily  of  an  armistice,  which 
was  about  to  be  signed  preparatory  to  peace  ne- 
gotiations, as  they  had  talked  of  war  in  Larissa. 

Soon  information  came  from  the  Crown  Prince 
in  so  direct  a  manner  that  the  armistice  became 
a  settled    fact  in  the  mind  of  the  whole  army. 


"Garibaldians  .  .  .  toiled  on  and  on  at  midday. 


Shade  and  cool  water 


I 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         i  3  5 

Correspondents  already  down  with  dysentery  or 
threatened  with  it,  or  finding  the  revulsion  of 
their  stomachs  against  the  fare  at  Domoko  un- 
bearable, returned  to  Lamia  and  to  Athens,  the 
London  Times  and  Mr.  Blundell  being  among 
them.  So  the  Manchester  Guardian  and  I 
found  ourselves  in  undisputed  possession  of  the 
field,  which,  as  we  successfully  defied  dysentery 
and  as  we  had  Carlos,  proved  to  be  fairly  com- 
fortable. 

When  I  became  acquainted  with  the  merits  of 
Carlos,  easily  the  foremost  dragoman  in  Greece, 
I  confess  to  having  felt  at  once  a  growing  fond- 
ness for  his  employer,  the  Ma7ichester  Guardian. 
Since  the  flight  of  Castopis,  the  Guardian  and  I 
had  pooled  commissariats,  with  Carlos  as  chief 
steward  and  my  new  dragoman,  Aristocles,  an 
odd  and  not  unentertaining  Greek  from  Con- 
stantinople, as  assistant.  Carlos  had  secured  for 
us  well  up  on  the  hillside  a  private  house  with  a 
balcony,  whose  owner  had  joined  the  Army  of 
Desolation.  Here  we  set  up  housekeeping  with 
two  plates  and  two  cups  and  entertained  the 
Foreign  Legion  and  other  friends  with  mutton 
and  bread  and  a  foreign  cheese  which  dwindled 
and  dwindled  until  not  another  piece  could  be 


136        Going  to  War  in  Greece 

cut  out  of  it.  One  day  while  Carlos  was  away  at 
Lamia,  where  he  succeeded  in  recovering  one  of 
the  Guardian  s  ponies,  we  nearly  starved.  Aris- 
tocles  announced  gravely  that  there  was  no 
bread,  no  mutton  and  no  salt  to  be  found  in  the 
town.  In  half  an  hour  after  his  return,  Carlos 
secured  all  these  things;  also  a  chicken,  which 
he  broiled  over  a  charcoal  fire  while  he  gave 
Aristocles  advice  on  the  use  of  diplomacy  and 
threats  in  catering.  The  salt,  he  said,  had  come 
from  the  Crown  Prince's  own  commissariat. 

Among  those  who  ate  with  us  at  our  wooden 
table  was  a  little  Reservist,  weak  for  want  of 
food.  He  had  just  passed  his  examination  for 
the  Greek  diplomatic  service,  and  out  of  love  of 
his  country  was  now  suffering  the  hardships  of 
other  privates  who  slept  on  the  hillside.  He 
insisted  that  he  was  not  at  all  hungry,  but  once 
we  convinced  him  that  we  had  more  mutton  and 
bread  than  we  could  consume  he  was  able  to 
muster  a  ravenous  appetite. 

That  wonderful  man,  the  Swedish  lieutenant, 
occasionally  burst  in  upon  us  like  a  dash  of  sun- 
shine. He  was  one  of  seven  Swedish  military 
attaches  who  had  come  to  Greece  in  search  of 
professional   information,  which   he  had   gained 


'  •        ■>      )       ^       5  \     '       '        ' 


"  Washing  their  clothes  at  the  brookside. 


..^SaMfl 


''  On  leave. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         137 

by  means  of  a  great  deal  of  professional  expe- 
rience. Unlike  the  others  he  was  not  in  uni- 
form, but  wore  a  civilian's  suit  with  a  black  coat 
of  the  German  military  style  buttoned  up  tightly 
under  his  chin.  Their  uniforms  were  bespat- 
tered ;  they  had  given  up  shaving,  and  they  were 
jaded,  as  it  seemed  that  anybody  at  Domoko 
ought  to  be,  and  as  the  lieutenant  was  not. 

The  lieutenant  had  a  notebook  containing  in- 
formation about  every  position  along  our  lines 
which  he  had  gained  on  foot  under  a  broiling  sun. 
At  Larissa  his  infinite  politeness  and  wide  knowl- 
edge had  made  us  think  him  a  Miss  Nancy. 
But  we  soon  learned  that  all  night  on  foot  would 
not  bend  his  straight  back,  which  never  failed  to 
bend  when  he  bowed ;  that  in  walking  over 
ploughed  ground  in  a  hailstorm  of  bullets  he 
was  more  interested  in  keeping  his  boots  clean 
than  in  anything  else.  In  the  panic  on  the  road 
from  Mati,  though  he  could  not  speak  a  word  of 
Greek,  he  had  drawn  his  revolver  and  brought 
order  out  of  disorder  in  his  immediate  vicinity. 
Again,  after  bringing  in  a  wounded  Evzoni 
under  a  galling  fire  which  no  one  else  would 
face,  his  first  act  was  to  fleck  the  dust  from  his 
clothes.     As  he  perched  himself  upon  an  oasis  in 


138         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

the  slime  of  Domoko — clean  shaven,  moustache 
brushed  up,  spotless  clothes,  looking  fit  for  a 
ball — and  asked  you  if  you  did  not  think  that  the 
Greeks  were  making  many  mistakes,  he  seemed, 
despite  his  cleverness,  just  a  little  exasperating. 

While  riding  over  the  positions  to  the  left  of 
Domoko  one  day,  the  Guardian  and  I  met  a 
London  doctor  who  was  a  graduate  of  Oxford 
and  an  ex-Tommy  Atkins  who  had  served  in  the 
Soudan,  both  being  members  of  the  Foreign 
Legion.  They  stood  up  very  straight,  except 
for  wavering  knees,  saying  that  they  were  not 
hungry  and  not  done  up  at  all.  But  not  heed- 
ing their  protests  we  put  them  on  our  ponies  and 
took  them  back  to  town,  where  Carlos  fed  them 
well ;  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  our  friend- 
ship with  the  Legion. 

I  think  the  apotheosis  of  the  Legion  was  a  brief 
conversation  between  Tommy  and  one  of  his 
fellow  volunteers,  a  Scotch  professor  of  Greek. 

"  Wot  is  this  bloomin'  old  Parthenon  I  'ear  so 
much  abowt?  "  Tommy  asked. 

"  It's  a — it's  a  historical  building  !  "  replied 
the  professor. 

But  they  continued  to  be  good  comrades. 

With  the  exception  of  three  or  four  Armenians 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         139 

the  Legion  was  entirely  composed  of  Europeans. 
After  distinguishing  themselves  by  begging  to 
have  a  Turkish  peasant  who  was  taken  prisoner 
on  suspicion  burned  alive,  the  Armenians  ran 
away  for  good  and  all  the  first  time  they  were 
under  fire.  All  social  classes  were  represented 
in  the  little  body  of  a  hundred  men,  which  in- 
cluded ages  from  sixteen  to  fifty.  Some  of  them 
had  come  to  Greece  for  the  fun  of  the  thing  and 
some  were  inspired  by  the  high  ideals  of  the 
professor  of  Greek.  The  great  majority  were 
either  French  or  English.  I  recall  only  one  Ger- 
man, and  him  because  he  received  a  bullet  through 
his  clothes  for  trying  to  steal  a  pony,  a  fact 
which  he  related  as  a  charming  experience  min- 
gled with  regret  that  he  had  still  to  walk.  A 
number  of  young  Danes  at  first  found  real 
pleasure  in  volunteering  in  the  cause  of  the  son 
of  their  King  and  afterward  determined  to  be 
"  game  "  like  their  comrades. 

Affecting  to  despise  the  Legion,  the  Crown 
Prince  had,  nevertheless,  always  placed  it  in  the 
most  dangerous  position  in  his  lines.  A  staff 
officer  was  heard  to  remark  that  nobody  would 
mind  if  all  of  the  foreigners  were  killed.  At 
Mati  the  Legion,  left  alone  on  the  plain  under 


140         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

the  moonlight,  because  it  would  not  run  with- 
out orders,  heard  the  rumor  that  the  Turkish 
cavalry  was  about  to  descend  upon  it. 

'*  Then  the  proper  thing  to  do  is  to  fix  bayo- 
nets, I  have  read,"  said  the  Scotch  professor  of 
Greek. 

"  Helas  /  Yes,"  said  a  beardless  student  of  the 
Sorbonne.  "  No  horse  will  run  upon  one,  I  have 
read,  if  you  hold  it  steady." 

Thus  the  picturesque  little  band  with  its  colors 
uplifted  made  ready  to  receive  the  whole  Turkish 
horse  with  none  the  less  courage  because  the 
Turkish  horse,  contrary  to  rumor,  was  fast  asleep. 

Now,  having  stationed  the  Legion  in  front  of  a 
break  in  the  mountains  which  he  expected  the 
Turks  would  try  to  force,  the  Crown  Prince  sent 
to  it,  instead  of  food,  an  order  forbidding  the  ap- 
propriation of  any  stray  beast  or  fowl,  which  it 
disobeyed  whenever  possible.  Whatever  deli- 
cacies the  phlegmatic  Englishman  enjoyed  were 
the  bounty  of  the  Frenchman,  duplicating  the 
experience  of  the  allied  forces  in  the  Crimea. 
There  is  no  forager  so  gay  or  so  ingenious  as  a 
Frenchman,  who  is  always  able  to  spy  out  a 
chicken  and  grab  it  by  the  leg,  anticipating  any 
squawks  that  would  attract  attention.     Then  he 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         141 

will  easily  make  a  fire  out  of  wet  twigs,  cooking 
it  to  a  beautiful  brown,  and  perhaps  implicate  the 
officer  in  the  crime  by  tempting  him  to  accept  a 
succulent  wing. 

When  the  Legion  and  the  Swedish  lieutenant 
were  not  entertaining  us  it  was  gratifying  to 
know  that  the  gray-bearded  telegrapher,  who  had 
run  away  from  Larissa  and  Pharsala  at  the  last 
moment  with  a  bundle  of  antedated  press  tele- 
grams under  his  arm,  had  reached  Domoko  un- 
harmed. Early  in  the  ante-bellum  days  at 
Larissa  he  would  always  say  on  being  questioned 
that  he  had  sent  our  telegrams,  and  he  was  be- 
lieved until  roundabout  inquiry  revealed  that  he 
meant  that  they  had  gone  to  Athens  by  mail 
after  they  had  lain  in  his  office  for  several  days. 
The  vehemence  then  poured  upon  his  head  by 
many  angry  correspondents  made  him  thereafter 
absolutely  noncommittal.  If  you  finally  asked 
him,  "  Is  this  really  a  telegraph  office  ?  "  he  shook 
his  head  and  waggled  his  trembling  hands  as  he 
said  softly,  *'  I  don't  know  !  "  You  could  go  no 
further  for  you  could  not  justly  even  swear  at 
such  a  pitifully  bent,  little  old  man  who  had  sud- 
denly found  himself  in  the  midst  of  such  a  cha- 
otic world  of  responsibilities.     But  if  you  patted 


142         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

him  on  the  back  and  sympathized  with  him  his 
mind  seemed  to  clarify,  and  in  this  way  he  and  I 
struck  up  a  friendship. 

One  London  correspondent  who  was  supposed 
to  have  the  right  of  way  over  all  other  corre- 
spondents because  he  represented  a  paper  of  ex- 
treme Phil-Hellenic  sympathies,  on  reaching 
Athens  after  a  month's  hard  work,  including  a 
tramp  over  Pindos  in  snow  up  to  his  thighs,  tele- 
graphed to  his  editor,  "  I  have  sent  fifteen  tele- 
grams and  ten  articles  by  mail.  How  many  have 
you  received  ?  "  The  answer  was  :  '*  None. 
Come  home !  " 

The  old  telegrapher  might  have  defended  him- 
self by  saying  that  the  telegraph  service  was  as 
good  as  the  postal  service.  At  Domoko  the  pile 
of  letters  deposited  in  the  dark  little  room  called 
the  post-office  grew  and  grew,  for  none  of  them 
were  ever  sent  away.  If  a  Greek  mail  carrier  be- 
came excited  in  discussing  politics  he  was  likely 
to  toss  his  mail  bags  into  the  sea.  To  such  ir- 
regularities I  owe  the  loss  of  some  of  the  best  of 
my  photographic  films.  As  a  further  vexation, 
my  first  camera  had  been  smashed  at  Mati  and  I 
was  not  able  to  get  another  until  I  left  Athens 
for  Domoko. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         143 

But  the  Army  of  the  Caf^  itself  ?  It  was  the 
same  old  Army  of  the  Cafe,  only  very  much  jaded, 
as  anything  of  tinsel  was  bound  to  be  after  being 
trailed  in  humiliation  and  the  dust  all  the  way 
from  Meluna  Pass  to  Thermopylae,  a  distance  of 
only  forty  miles,  but  made  most  difficult  by  the 
army's  inherent  weaknesses.  In  saying  that  we 
had  lost  no  guns  the  Crown  Prince,  who  accepted 
the  word  of  officers  who  wished  to  cover  their 
shame,  may  have  been  sincere  enough.  His 
force  still  had  about  thirty  field  and  mountain 
guns,  exclusive  of  three  of  the  Krupps  bought 
for  the  defense  of  Larissa. 

General  Macris  now  occupied  a  small  room  in 
a  village  house,  which,  however,  was  not  in  as 
sharp  contrast  to  his  former  quarters  as  was  the 
latest  apartment  of  the  Crown  Prince  to  the 
palace  in  Larissa,  where,  I  believe,  Edhem  Pasha 
found  the  doors  open  and  many  table  delicacies 
to  welcome  him  as  its  new  tenant.  The  general 
was  still  the  Crown  Prince's  chief  adviser.  He 
did  not  show  the  effects  of  defeat  as  much  as 
his  superior,  who  had  aged  perceptibly  in  a 
month.  Both  kept  to  their  quarters.  The  Crown 
Prince,  whose  pale  face  seemed  oddly  out  of 
place   in  a  land   where   everybody  was   tanned, 


144         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

never  rode  out,  either  because  of  fear  of  violence 
or  from  a  disinclination  for  physical  exercise  which 
the  branch  of  the  Danish  royal  family  occupying 
the  throne  of  Greece  seems  to  have  absorbed 
along  with  other  traits  not  conducive  to  intel- 
lectual force  from  the  people  whom  it  nominally 
governs.  I  was  interested  in  speaking  with  him 
after  **  the  great  downfall,"  as  the  officers,  deter- 
mined to  be  grand  at  all  events,  called  their  de- 
feat. He  received  me  in  his  room,  its  furniture 
consisting  of  a  cot,  two  chairs  and  a  table  and 
its  only  ornament  a  photograph  of  his  wife  and 
children  in  a  little  standard  on  the  table. 

**  I  am  very  unpopular  now,"  were  almost  his 
first  words.  "  But  I  have  suffered  myself.  I 
went  without  food  for  twenty-four  hours.  My 
servants  ran  away  and  I  lost  my  baggage.  We 
were  forced  to  retreat  by  superior  numbers,  but 
we  can  hold  Domoko  unless  the  superior  num- 
bers become  overwhelming.  The  lack  of  disci- 
pline is  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  I  am  not  al- 
lowed to  punish  deserters.  I  was  opposed  to  the 
war  and  I  feared  this  result." 

Again  and  again  spectators  had  remarked 
upon  the  great  suitability  of  rifle-calibre  machine 
guns  for  the  kind  of  warfare  of  this   campaign. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         145 

A  dozen  of  them  on  the  front  ridges  at  the  weak 
point  in  our  Pharsala-Velestino  lines  could  have 
driven  back  the  attack  which  forced  the  second 
retreat.  When  you  noticed  a  new  Maxim  with 
its  nose  pointing  out  of  a  window  in  the  Crown 
Prince's  quarters,  naturally  you  became  curious. 

"We  have  just  received  it  as  a  present,"  he 
said.  "  It  uses  a  lot  of  ammunition,  doesn't 
it?" 

**  It  will  not  waste  more  than  the  Irregulars," 
I  suggested. 

"  Yes,  the  Irregulars  have  been  a  great  nuisance. 
Unfortunately,  our  officers  do  not  know  how  to 
operate  the  Maxim,  but  I  suppose  they  might 
learn.  We  have  thought  of  giving  it  to  some  of 
the  Englishmen  in  the  Foreign  Legion  who  do 
know  how  to  use  it.  I  am  uncertain  as  to  what 
we  shall  do  with  it."  (As  a  result,  it  never  fired 
a  shot  in  the  battle  of  Domoko.) 

There  is  an  old-time  prophecy,  often  on  the 
tongues  of  modern  Greeks,  that  when  Greece 
should  have  a  king  by  the  name  of  Constantin 
the  Byzantine  Empire  would  be  reestablished 
through  his  efforts.  Prince  Constantin,  the  future 
King  Constantin,  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine  as 
commander-in-chief  of  forty  thousand  men  who 


146        Going  to  War  in  Greece 

had  twice  been  defeated,  was  now  the  object  of 
all  his  people's  hatred.  His  father  had  not  come 
to  the  front  as  expected,  but  had  remained  at 
home  in  summer  lassitude,  escaping  as  much  of 
the  blame  as  he  could.  Constantin  was  tired  of 
the  business  of  soldiering.  Not  made  of  the 
stern  stuff  necessary  for  a  good  officer,  he  also 
lacked  the  training  and  the  mind  of  a  general. 
He  longed  to  return  from  the  angry  glances  of 
the  soldiers  to  his  family  in  Athens  and  from 
living  on  mutton,  bread  and  cheese  and  dress- 
ing without  a  valet  to  a  life  to  which  he  was  bet- 
ter suited.  It  was  wrong  to  put  one  so  unfit 
in  such  a  position  of  responsibility ;  but  we 
could  sympathize  with  him  better  if  he  had 
shown  a  braver  spirit.  Longing  for  the  end  of 
the  campaign,  he  lay  back  idly  like  a  fatalist  and 
allowed  the  Army  of  the  Cafe  to  drift  on  in 
a  chaotic  state. 

"  We  have  our  men  placed  all  along  the 
ridges,"  said  General  Macris,  who  seemed  to 
think  that  nothing  more  was  necessary. 

Only  the  artillerymen  awoke  from  their  lassi- 
tude for  an  hour  or  two  each  day  to  do  what 
they  considered  a  work  of  superfluity  because 
there  was   an   armistice.     They   tore   away   the 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         147 

stone  wall  of  the  mediaeval  fort,  occupied  by- 
many  cannon  in  its  day  of  usefulness,  and  substi- 
tuted the  more  practicable  defense  of  earth  and 
brush.  Here  they  placed  one  of  three  big 
Krupps  which  had  been  saved  from  Larissa,  and 
on  surrounding  heights  they  placed  the  other 
two.  Our  field  and  mountain  guns  were  put 
mostly  on  the  ridges  directly  in  front  of  Domoko, 
to  protect  the  ravine  which  leads  up  to  the  town 
from  the  plain.  If  the  Turks  did  not  try  to  force 
their  way  through  at  this  point  they  surely 
would  at  another  pass  some  ten  miles  out  on 
the  left,  where  the  Evzoni  and  the  Foreign  Le- 
gion were  stationed.  The  generals,  disagreeing 
in  this  with  the  military  attaches,  believed  it  to 
be  quite  impossible  that  the  Turks  would  at- 
tempt to  scale  the  far  more  difficult  ridges  at  the 
right,  and  accordingly  made  it  their  weakest  line. 
From  the  citadel  the  whole  stretch  of  some 
twenty  miles  of  our  position  was  visible,  except- 
ing the  extreme  right. 

For  ten  days  the  Turks  showed  no  signs  of 
movement.  With  field  glasses  you  could  see 
faintly  figures  pottering  about  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  villages  and  in  the  morning  the  fires 
for   boiling  coffee.      Two  or  three  fezzes  creep- 


148         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

ing  up  every  day  so  near  to  our  lines  as  to  be 
killed  or  taken  prisoners  suggested  that  either 
certain  of  the  enemy  were  tired  of  inaction  or  else 
were  playing  the  spy.  If  you  heard  at  the  caf^ 
that  the  Turks  were  celebrating  the  Feast  of 
Beiram  or  might  be  waiting  to  complete  prepa- 
rations for  their  plan  of  attack,  the  suggestion 
was  drowned  in  the  talk  that  the  armistice  hav- 
ing been  declared  for  ten  or  twenty  or  thirty 
days — what  mattered  a  little  disagreement  about 
details  ? — meant  that  the  war  was  over ;  and,  why 
should  not  the  Turks  be  quiet  ? 

Our  Irregulars  were  still  with  us,  helping  on 
the  chaos.  They  sauntered  about,  wasting  car- 
tridges as  they  pleased.  If  they  jammed  the 
mechanism  of  their  rifles  by  neglect  they  took 
them  to  the  sidewalk  shoemaker,  who,  for  a 
drachma,  oiled  them  until  they  worked  again. 
He  had  picked  up  guns  thrown  away  by  deserters 
who  wandered  unmolested  over  the  hills,  and  sold 
them  at  a  reasonable  figure  to  any  Greek  who 
wished  to  start  a  band  of  braves  of  his  own  to 
help  demoralize  his  country's  army.  Official 
talk  of  disarming  the  Irregulars  ended  in  the  re- 
turn of  the  dozen  rifles,  which  staff  officers  had 
taken    in  a  burst  of   energy,  to   glib  "  petticoat 


I 


Reserves  .  .  .  choked  the  streets." 


Took  them  to  the  sidewalk  shoemaker." 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         149 

men "  who  enlisted  the  support  of  political 
hangers-on  in  a  protest  against  this  gross  in- 
fringement of  the  rights  of  property. 

"  Why  put  ourselves  to  the  trouble  ?  Let 
them  have  the  rifles,"  said  the  staff  officers. 
'*  What  matters  it  when  there  is  an  armistice?  " 

The  vindicated  Irregulars  soon  found  a  new 
diversion  in  robbery,  and  Reserves  were  of  ne- 
cessity assigned  to  protect  the  herds  and  the 
household  goods  of  the  Army  of  Desolation. 
So  certain  of  the  armistice  were  most  of  the 
officers  that  they  began  to  swagger  around  in 
their  soiled  uniforms  with  some  of  their  old-time 
bravado,  saying:  *' We  have  not  had  a  true  bat- 
tle. Ah !  we  have  been  betrayed.  We  have 
been  forced  to  retreat  against  our  wills.  Had 
we  been  given  a  chance  to  fight  the  result  would 
have  been  different." 

They  could  have  found  basis  for  a  faint  hope 
for  the  opportunity  they  longed  for  had  they 
gone  to  the  telegraph  office  where  all  news  was 
received.  The  little  old  man  did  not  make  the 
wish  the  father  of  the  fact  with  the  ease  of  the 
Crown  Prince  and  General  Macris.  He  shook 
his  head  and  said:  "An  armistice  is  expected, 
but  it  is  not  yet  certain."     From  this  one  could 


150         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

only  surmise  that  the  Powers  were  pressing  the 
Sultan  for  an  armistice  to  which  he  had  not  yet 
agreed.  In  the  face  of  ten  days  of  inactivity  and 
reiteration  of  an  armistice  by  the  whole  world 
of  Domoko  there  remained  the  fact  that  the 
Turks,  who  had  been  thus  far  an  army  of  offense 
forever  carrying  redoubts,  and  thereby  suffering 
far  greater  losses  than  their  hated  Christian  ene- 
mies, would  strain  a  point  for  the  privilege  of  a 
little  more  blood-letting. 

"  When  there  is  an  armistice,"  cried  the  offi- 
cers, "  what  does  it  matter  if  there  is  no  regular 
commissariat  arranged ;  if  the  bread  carts  wait 
in  the  streets  of  Lamia  until  their  drivers  have 
finished  their  political  discussions  at  the  caf6 
before  starting  for  Domoko  ?  " 

Our  soldiers  had  suffered  steadily  for  lack  of 
sufficient  bread  and  cheese,  which  they  preferred 
to  mutton.  But  the  mutton  need  not  come 
from  Lamia.  The  Army  of  Desolation  would 
still  honor  a  paper  drachma.  It  had  in  its  herds 
enough  meat  to  supply  the  Army  of  the  Cafe 
for  many  weeks,  if  arrangements  for  its  purchase 
and  distribution  had  been  made.  With  the 
nights  so  cold  that  I  shivered  under  my  own 
heavy  coverings,  scarcely  half  the   soldiers  had 


"  If  the  bread  carts  wait  in  the  streets  of  Lamia- 


Looking  down  disdainfully  on  the  Reserves. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         151 

blankets.  Four  or  five  of  them  would  curl  up 
together  after  dark  and  share  what  blankets  they 
had  between  them.  The  Evzoni  showed  the  ef- 
fects of  discipline  by  having  retained  their  heavy 
native  coats,  their  knapsacks  and  water  bottles. 

But  how  the  Evzoni  had  changed,  I  thought 
as  I  saw  a  company  of  them  moving  along  the 
road  into  the  town.  Their  blue  coats  were 
faded,  their  leggings  brown  with  dirt.  Their 
old  accuracy  of  marching  had  been  supplanted 
by  the  self-sufficient  style  of  trained  mountain- 
eers. They  stood  erect,  scornful  of  the  Reserves 
about  them.  Having  been  bathed  in  fire,  they 
were  no  longer  the  King's  show  soldiers  but 
devil-may-care  veterans,  jaunty  in  a  spirit  of  de- 
fiant fatalism.  It  was  a  pity  that  they  had  not 
had  a  better  chance. 

What  did  it  matter  when  there  was  an  armis- 
tice? The  engineers  talked  politics  instead  of 
building  needful  roads  and  earthworks.  The  op- 
ticon-telegraph  had  ceased  to  be  of  enough  in- 
terest to  be  used  with  any  thoroughness.  Cav- 
alrymen wore  out  horses  on  rocky  inclines  in  a 
half-hearted  attempt  at  orderly  service  when  a 
system  of  signals  would  have  done  the  work 
much  better.     No  one  minded  if  a  private  added 


152         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

his  weight  to  the  ammunition  on  a  donkey  whose 
back  bled  profusely  as  it  toiled  up  the  mountain 
path. 

"  What  does  it  matter  when  there  is  an  arm- 
istice ? "  asked  the  officers  out  on  the  ridges. 
Even  volunteers  fresh  from  Athens  were  not 
drilled.  Soldiers  on  leave  from  the  ridges  choked 
the  streets  of  the  town. 


CHAPTER   X. 

IN  our  little  household  Monday  morning,  May 
loth,  began  in  the  routine  manner  of  the 
nine  other  mornings  of  Domoko's  inactive 
confidence  which  had  preceded  it.  If  you  might 
have  stepped  out  on  to  our  balcony,  looking  down 
you  would  have  seen  the  everlasting  two  or 
three  tired  Reservists  straggling  into  town. 
Near  by  them  was  one  of  the  slim-snouted,  semi- 
wild  village  hogs  enjoying  a  piece  of  army  refuse ; 
and  a  few  yards  beyond,  at  a  well,  were  two  more 
Reservists  washing  lamb's  entrails  which  they 
were  going  to  roast  on  a  stick. 

But  looking  down  was  down,  indeed  ;  and  look- 
ing up  was  up,  indeed.  For  the  trouble  of  a 
glance  over  the  shoulder  you  could  see  the  sun 
rise  on  the  Thessalian  plain.  While  breakfast 
was  being  prepared,  forgetful  of  neglected  sani- 
tation, you  would  have  enjoyed  this  enchanting 
picture  to  the  full  as  one  takes  in  a  breath  of 
fresh  air  when  he  emerges  from  an  unventilated 
bedroom. 


154         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

General  Maoris  was  chatting  with  a  colonel 
and  looking  at  the  wall  when  at  nine  o'clock  I 
entered  his  room  expecting  to  be  told  for  the 
sixth  or  seventh  time  that  he  had  no  news  ex- 
cept that  the  armistice  was  as  good  as  signed. 
He  rose  as  deliberately  as  ever  to  receive  me, 
and  bowed  and  spoke  with  his  usual  politeness. 
After  we  had  lighted  cigarettes,  he  said : 

'*  Three  battalions  of  Turks  are  advancing  on 
our  left,  monsieur.  If  you  will  come  back  in  an 
hour  I  shall  be  delighted  to  tell  you  if  there  is 
to  be  an  attack.  We  had  expected  the  enemy 
to  try  to  force  in  our  left,  as  you  know,  mon- 
sieur. Consequently,  we  are  quite  prepared  to 
receive  him." 

As  the  report  of  the  advance  had  first  come 
from  the  citadel  it  had  not  yet  reached  the 
square  or  the  broad  road  at  the  right  of  the 
town  which  was  always  filled  with  gossiping 
stragglers.  At  the  house  opposite  the  Crown 
Prince's  headquarters  were  the  usual  number  of 
bread  carts,  baggage  mules  and  loungers,  in  dis- 
order. On  the  hillside  above  the  road  was  an 
even  more  motley  gathering  of  the  odds  and 
ends  of  an  army's  rear. 

Once  the  great  news  started  it  traveled  as  fast 


"  Reserves  straggling  in." 


Beyond,  at  a  well  .  .  .  two  more  Reservists." 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         155 

as  a  shadow  on  the  plain.  All  stragglers,  whether 
officers  or  privates,  suddenly  gave  up  gossiping 
to  look  in  the  direction  of  the  villages  in  the 
distance  which  were  supposed  to  be  occupied  by 
the  enemy.  Most  of  them  could  see  nothing. 
Those  with  sharper  eyes  saw  faintly  dark  lines 
and  dark  masses  which  could  not  be  trees  or 
bushes.  All  surrounded  their  officers  to  ask  ex- 
cited questions.  The  self-sufficient  officers  re- 
plied : 

"  They  are  going  away !  " 

"  They  are  celebrating  a  feast !  " 

"  They  must  be  going  away  or  must  be  cele- 
brating a  feast  because  there  is  an  armistice !  " 

Riding  down  the  military  road,  which  dips  and 
bends  around  the  corners  of  crest  after  crest  until 
it  merges  into  the  plain,  I  was  soon  able  to  see 
distinctly  with  my  glasses  that  the  general's 
three  battalions  of  half  an  hour  ago  were  the 
Turkish  army  being  thrown  out  in  a  line  of  battle 
seven  miles  long. 

A  colonel  of  artillery  with  glasses  in  hand,  re- 
turning from  a  position  nearer  the  plain,  lifted 
his  cap  and  drew  rein  to  say  in  French  : 

*'  Are  you  going  to  see  the  Turk,  gentlemen  ? 
It  is  nothing,  gentlemen,  I  assure  you,  nothing." 


156         Going  to  War  in  Greece 
**  Do    you    mean    that  what   we    see    yonder 


"  Nothing,  gentlemen,  nothing  ! "  he  cried 
back  as  he  rode  away. 

How  long  Headquarters  believed  that  it  had 
only  three  battalions  to  deal  with  I  do  not  know. 
It  was  not  until  ten  o'clock  that  a  glimmer  of 
the  truth  lighted  up  the  minds  of  loitering  offi- 
cers, who  became  gesticulatory  and  chattering, 
and  then  speechless,  as  they  looked  beseechingly 
from  the  plain  to  their  friends  and  then  beseech- 
ingly back  to  the  plain. 

Never  again  do  I  expect  to  see  so  grand  a 
spectacle  as  that  of  the  Turkish  advance  to  the 
attack  and  the  three  hours'  steady  and  grim 
musketry  and  artillery  fire  which  followed.  The 
ridges  were  as  a  gallery  and  the  plain  below  as  a 
stage.  But  it  was  not  mimic  warfare  that  we 
were  to  see.  When  a  man  fell  he  was  not  to  rise 
with  the  fall  of  the  curtain.  In  the  rifle-pits  or 
in  the  batteries  a  correspondent  could  have  seen 
only  part  of  the  battle.  This  time  it  became  his 
duty  to  remain  outside  of  the  line  of  fire.  From 
our  seats,  which  we  selected  with  due  care,  we 
could  see  whatever  action  might  take  place  ex- 
cept behind  the  brown  mountain  five  or  six  miles 


5  ,  J '    '   ,'    ^   '  ^ 


"  The  broad  road  at  the  right  of  the  town." 


"^Bread  carts,  baggage  mules  and  loungers.' 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         157 

to  the  right.  We  were  directly  in  line  with  the 
ravine  which  constituted  our  centre.  The  splen- 
dor but  not  the  power  of  the  scene  which  we 
beheld  might  have  been  heightened  if  the  Turks 
had  been  clad  in  the  brilliant  silk  turbans,  the 
vast  flowing  trousers  and  adorned  with  the  broad, 
ornamented,  ineffectual  swords  which  inconven- 
ienced the  Janizaries  in  the  days  when  they 
were  beginning  to  lose  their  virility  and  their 
country  its  military  supremacy. 

What  we  saw  instead  were  dark  blocks  and 
columns  and  lines  of  that  same  fighting  race  now 
clad  in  the  practical  marching  costume  of  the 
regenerate  Turkish  host,  armed  with  unorna- 
mented  and  terrible  modern  weapons  and  not  ad- 
vancing with  grandiose  irregularity  but  in  scien- 
tific order.  There  was  something  in  the  very 
movement  of  this  oncoming  force  which  said  that 
it  thirsted  for  more  bloodletting ;  while  the  ac- 
tion of  all  the  soldiers  on  the  ridges  and  the  loit- 
erers on  the  roads  out  of  Domoko  said  that  they 
had  seen  more  than  enough  of  war. 

When,  finally,  the  Greeks  had  awakened  to  the 
truth,  officers  and  men  on  leave  to  a  number  to 
put  a  blush  upon  the  cheek  of  discipline  began 
to  bustle  one  another,  some  rushing  off  to  their 


158        Going  to  War  in  Greece 

companies  and  some,  I  fear,  making  straight  for 
the  rear ;  while  the  remainder,  too  cowardly  to 
perform  their  duty,  too  shameless  to  hide  their 
faces,  loitered  on  to  enjoy  the  battle  as  illegiti- 
mate spectators. 

It  was  apparent  before  noon  that  the  Turks 
were  going  to  attack  our  centre  and  our  right. 
Already  they  had  swung  in  two  miles  this  side 
of  the  pass  at  our  extreme  left,  where  the  flower 
of  our  soldiery,  the  Evzoni,  was  stationed.  But 
looking  over  toward  the  mountain  path  on  our 
left  I  saw  a  long  line  of  Reserves  moving  away 
from  the  scene  of  the  coming  battle.  General 
Macris  was  still  determined  that  any  conflict 
must  follow  the  plans  that  he  had  laid  down  for 
Edhem  Pasha. 

From  the  mouth  of  the  ravine  the  miHtary 
road  runs  on  across  the  plain  like  a  gray  river 
until  it  disappears  altogether  with  two  or  three 
gleaming  streaks,  resembling  flecks  of  foam  on 
the  crest  of  a  bronze  sea,  which  mark  its  distant 
windings  toward  Pharsala.  Up  to  a  mountain 
spur  some  four  miles  out,  however,  it  is  perfectly 
straight.  This  spur  bounds  a  semi-circular  branch 
of  the  plain,  our  side  of  which  constituted  our 
right.     Thousands  of  Turks  had  now  made  this 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         159 

gray  river  black  with  uniforms  and  red  with 
fezzes  for  a  distance  of  two  miles.  Many  red  and 
black  streams  flowed  into  it  beyond  the  spur, 
while  on  the  hither  side  of  the  spur  the  main 
stream  spread  out  into  a  broad,  studied  delta 
with  channel  splitting  into  channel.  This  delta 
began  significantly  half  a  mile  out  of  the  range 
of  our  three  big  Krupps.  Here,  the  infantry 
marched  off  by  battalions,  the  battalions  broke 
into  companies,  and  the  companies  deployed  in 
skirmish  order ;  while  the  field  artillery  galloped 
forward  on  our  right  of  the  road,  swinging  into 
line. 

The  largest  stream  of  the  delta  ran  out  at  a 
right  angle  to  the  course  of  the  river.  Evidently 
its  line  of  red  fezzes  was  going  to  join  the  fig- 
ures, which  our  glasses  had  revealed  on  the  moun- 
tain beyond,  in  an  attack  upon  our  right. 

For  three  hours  we  had  watched  the  prepara- 
tions without  once  hearing  the  boom  of  a  gun  or 
the  crack  of  a  rifle.  Neither  song  nor  cheer 
arose  from  the  ridges  where  our  infantry  was 
stationed.  If  the  movements  along  the  military 
road  were  perplexed  they  were  not  noisy.  The 
soldiers  of  the  Cafe  were  not  shouting  defiant  and 
scornful  challenges  to  the  enemy ;  rather,  they 


i6o         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

were  noting  every  rod  of  his  advance  as  if  he 
were  a  rising  tide  that  lapped  their  bodies  which 
were  pinioned  by  the  uniforms  that  they  wore 
and  the  presence  of  their  officers. 

Vast  at  all  times  as  silence  on  a  great  plain  is, 
it  had  now  become  heavy,  ominous  and  chilling. 
Softly,  and  at  noon,  it  was  broken  by  two  distant 
booms,  bearing  with  the  speed  of  sound  the  sur- 
prising information  that  Edhem  Pasha  had  scaled 
the  heights  on  the  far  right  with  two  mountain 
guns.  These  he  could  scarcely  have  brought  up 
in  a  single  morning.  Unknown  to  our  generals 
he  must  have  been  preparing  for  some  days  to 
overcome  the  greater  natural  obstacles  offered  to 
a  turning  movement  on  our  right  wing.  Until 
the  far  bloodier  attack  on  our  centre  completely 
drowned  it,  we  continued  to  hear  desultory  firing 
from  this  direction.  What  progress  the  Turks 
were  making  we  might  not  know  then,  as  all  the 
action  was  invisible. 

At  noon  the  plain  was  entirely  under  shadow. 
The  suggestion  that  the  indisposition  of  the 
Turks  to  fight  in  a  rainstorm  might  prevent  a 
battle  after  all  passed  away  with  flying  clouds. 
By  one  o'clock  the  sunlight  was  again  bewitching 
the  landscape  with  colors. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         i6i 

The  form  of  the  impending  attack  upon  the 
ravine  which  was  the  key  to  our  centre  became 
more  and  more  wedge-shaped.  At  one  it  had 
seemed  as  if  our  outposts  would  be  engaged  by 
three  o'clock.  But  the  enemy  was  taking  his 
time.  For  an  hour  his  front  lines  of  skirmishers 
remained  practically  stationary.  They  were  be- 
ing arranged  in  better  order  for  securing  a  maxi- 
mum of  execution  with  a  minimum  of  loss  ;  more 
battalions  were  being  stretched  out  on  their  rear 
to  push  them  forward  if  they  should  waver.  It 
was  quite  proper,  in  the  meantime,  that  all  fel- 
lows in  fezzes  and  baggy  trousers  should  rest 
legs  tired  by  marching,  should  eat  a  piece  of 
bread  and  enjoy  a  deep  draught  from  their  water 
bottles  before  they  made  the  supreme  effort  of 
the  lives  which  many  of  them  were  about  to  sac- 
rifice. 

This  ravine  which  merges  into  the  plain  in 
front  of  the  town  of  Domoko  is  shaped  like  the 
letter  V,  the  ridges  that  form  its  sides  extending 
along  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  as  boundaries 
to  the  plain.  On  the  crests  of  these  ridges  were 
a  dozen  mountain  guns  and  on  the  immediate 
heights  behind  them  were  still  other  mountain 
guns  and   also  field  guns.     At  the  base  of   the 


1 62        Going  to  War  in  Greece 

front  ridges,  extending  along  the  plain  either  to 
the  right  or  to  the  left  of  the  prongs  of  the  V, 
was  a  mile  of  rifle-pits  which  were  continued  half 
way  down  the  prongs  where  they  joined  a  heavy 
line  of  riflemen  stretched  across  the  ravine  from 
one  side  to  the  other.  Lying  between  the  crest 
of  the  ridges  and  the  rifle-pits,  behind  whatever 
rocks  or  undergrowth  they  could  find  for  cover, 
were  the  seven  or  eight  hundred  Garibaldians 
and  also  a  number  of  Reserves.  Any  force  which 
reached  the  line  that  stretched  across  the  middle 
of  the  ravine  must  advance  for  a  half  mile  under  a 
continuous  cross-fire. 

Moreover,  a  line  of  riflemen  spanned  the 
broadest  part  of  the  V,  they  being  expected  to 
fall  back  on  the  line  to  their  rear.  Six  hundred 
yards  farther  out,  two  or  three  companies  rested 
in  a  circular  breastwork,  while  half  a  mile  beyond 
that  was  a  battalion  strung  out  on  a  long  strip  of 
ploughed  ground  to  engage  the  enemy.  The 
ends  of  this  line  persisted  in  huddling  in  close 
order,  showing  that  the  troops  did  not  relish  be- 
ing separated  when  they  faced  the  whole  Turkish 
army.  Their  officers  trusted  that  they  would  be 
able  to  spread  them  out  at  the  last  moment,  but 
were  deceived. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         163 

In  a  half  hour  after  the  firing  on  the  extreme 
right  had  begun  there  was  a  heavy  earthshaking 
report  which  announced  that  at  last  one  of  our 
Krupps  which  were  intended  originally  for  the  de- 
fense of  Larissa  was  in  action.  It  never  rose  to 
such  importance  again,  and  sank  into  the  insig- 
nificance of  the  third  violin  in  a  concert  when, 
three  and  a  half  hours  later,  the  battle  began  in 
earnest.  None  of  its  shells  did  less  harm  than  the 
first,  which  exploded  some  twenty  yards  in  front 
of  an  advancing  battery.  We  waited  and  we  al- 
most longed  for  a  reply  from  some  of  the  field 
guns  which  we  knew  Edhem  Pasha  had  stretched 
out  on  the  right  of  the  road  behind  his  skir- 
mishers. When  he  did  reply  he  replied  languidly 
with  an  occasional  random  shot,  despite  the  fairly 
regular  fire  of  our  Krupps  and  field  guns  which 
appeared  to  be  doing  considerable  damage. 

At  half  past  three  the  little  black,  red-topped 
figures  of  the  Turkish  skirmish  line,  in  order  as 
regular  as  the  trees  of  a  young  orchard,  were  al- 
ready so  near  to  the  forward  line  of  Greeks,  which 
was  kept  steady  with  difficulty,  that  the  first  ex- 
change of  shots  was  momentarily  expected. 

But  it  was  almost  four  o'clock  when  a  roll  of 
smoke  arose  from  the  foremost  Greek  line.     A 


164         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

few  seconds  later  we  heard  the  rattle  of  this  vol- 
ley, though  not  until  after  we  had  seen  little 
puffs  of  smoke  in  front  of  the  leading  Turkish 
skirmishers.  Instantly  the  right  of  the  Greek 
line  caved  in  some  ten  men  from  the  end,  and  in 
three  minutes  every  man  was  in  retreat.  As 
soon  as  they  were  out  of  the  way  the  earthwork 
opened  with  a  volley  and  had  only  begun  an  ir- 
regular fire  when  we  noticed  that  the  circular 
blue  line  which  marked  it  so  plainly  on  the  field 
was  already  broken  by  brown  patches. 

In  just  four  minutes  the  earthwork  was 
emptied  of  all  except  the  dead.  To  the  naked 
eye  its  defenders  seemed  to  be  coming  in  on  a 
dog  trot.  Through  the  glasses,  however,  the 
blue  figures,  leaving  now  and  then  a  prostrate 
comrade  behind,  were  hastening  toward  the 
ridges  as  eagerly  as  so  many  bearers  of  news 
from  Marathon,  some  hobbling  with  wounds  in 
the  foot  or  leg;  a  few,  crawling.  Only  an  occa- 
sional one  properly  loaded  his  rifle  as  he  ran  and 
then  turned  to  fire. 

All  made  for  the  rifle-pits  at  the  base  of  the 
ridges  ;  or  for  the  line  across  the  broad  end  of 
the  V  which  lasted  five  or  six  minutes  before 
its  fragments  hastened  back  to  the  other  cross 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         165 

line  half  way  down  the  ravine.  Such  paltry  op- 
position as  had  been  offered  thus  far  had  not  de- 
layed the  Turks  in  the  least ;  and  a  swarm  of 
bees  might  have  done  more  to  oppose  their 
skirmishing  order.  The  ease  with  which  they 
had  cleared  their  path  must  have  emboldened 
them  for  the  final  effort.  Knowledge  of  his  char- 
acter only  increased  one's  anxiety  as  to  the  effect 
of  so  precipitate  a  retreat  upon  the  Greek  Re- 
servist. 

The  Turkish  artillery  still  continued  to  fire 
only  occasional  random  shots.  Obviously  Ed- 
hem  Pasha  was  waiting  until  his  skirmishers  were 
well  up  to  the  ridges  before  he  played  his  bat- 
teries in  earnest. 

With  their  rifle  barrels  resting  on  the  soft  earth 
while  they  crouched  as  low  as  they  could,  only  a 
cap,  a  patch  of  black  hair  and  a  bronzed  forehead 
exposed,  the  Reserves  waited  for  their  fleeing 
comrades  to  pass  out  of  their  line  of  fire.  Nearer 
and  nearer  came  the  thousands  of  little  puff-balls 
blown  out  of  Turkish  rifles  like  soap  bubbles  out 
of  a  pipe,  until  the  point  of  the  wedge  was 
within  the  prongs  of  the  V. 

Our  guns  began  to  play  with  all  their  capacity. 
The  rifle-pits  at  the  base  of  the  ridges  and  the 


1 66         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

line  across  the  ravine  blossomed  with  volleys 
which  seemed  to  cause  no  hesitation  in  the  ad- 
vance. Simultaneously,  twenty-one  great  balls  of 
smoke  rolled  out  of  as  many  dark  blotches  in 
line  on  the  plain  ;  and  after  twenty-one  shells  had 
been  scattered  over  the  rifle-pits  and  the  front 
ridges,  we  heard  the  booming  of  a  salvo  from 
Edhem  Pasha's  batteries  when  they  set  out  to 
cover  an  infantry  attack  in  their  best  style. 

The  number  of  irregular  shots  quickly  follow- 
ing warranted  the  reckoning  that  Edhem  had  be- 
tween forty  and  fifty  fieldpieces  within  range  of 
the  ravine.  Immediately  he  began  to  advance 
split  batteries.  Galloping  horses  swinging  a  gun 
into  position  made  a  beautiful  picture  under  the 
patchy  sunlight. 

"  It  is  like  a  field  day,"  said  a  foreign  military 
attache  at  my  elbow. 

Most  of  the  puff  balls  were  now  mingled  in  a 
cloud  of  smoke.  Its  steadily  advancing  front 
ranks  seemed  to  be  drawing  the  Turkish  wedge 
after  them,  like  fishermen  pulling  in  a  net  on  a 
foggy  morning. 

"  But  if  it  were  truly  a  sham,  and  in  Western 
Europe,"  the  attache  added,  "  the  commander-in- 
chief,  in  high  dudgeon,  would  have  ordered  the 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         167 

Turks  in  the  cross  fire  off  the  field  as  being 
nominally  dead." 

For  a  quarter  of  an  hour  half  of  the  enemy's 
guns  were  trained  on  our  three  gun  battery — for 
brevity's  sake  I  shall  call  it  the  end  battery — oc- 
cupying the  foremost  ridge  and  nearest  to  the 
right  of  the  ravine  which  it  commanded  at  a  mur- 
derously short  range. 

You  remembered  the  gunners  of  this  battery 
in  the  easy-going  days  of  the  **  armistice  "  as  bur- 
rowing out  snug  places  in  the  mountain  side  to 
keep  off  the  wind  at  night ;  as  clumsily  sewing  up 
rents  in  their  clothes  instead  of  gossiping  in  the 
streets  ;  as  seemingly  superior  beings,  with  gun- 
ners' pride,  who  looked  down  upon  the  infantry- 
men lolling  on  the  hills  beyond. 

Would  they  now  come  up  to  expectations  ? 
Or,  would  they  desert  their  guns  and  scamper 
down  the  ridges?  Plainly,  their  business  was  to 
pound  the  advancing  Turkish  wedge,  while  the 
heavier  guns  on  the  ridges  at  their  rear  dealt 
with  the  Turkish  batteries.  They  were  the 
backbone  of  the  rifle-pits  and  the  line  across  the 
ravine  ;  and,  once  their  support  was  missed,  all  the 
Greek  infantrymen  in  and  near  the  ravine  would 
seek  safety  with  the  instinct  of  one  man  ham- 


1 68         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

pered  by  the  devices  and  legs  of  many  crowded 
into  that  neck  of  a  bottle,  the  mouth  of  the  ra- 
vine, with  the  Turks  at  their  heels. 

Simultaneously,  a  cluster  of  five  trails  of  blue 
smoke  seemed  to  leap  out  of  the  sky  just  over 
the  hardest-hit  gun  of  all,  the  one  nearest  to  the 
ravine,  sending  down  a  shower  of  iron,  which, 
strange  to  say,  knocked  over  only  one  man. 
Coming  through  a  cloud  of  dust  which  was  laden 
with  splinters  of  rocks  and  fragments  from  a  shell 
that  had  burst  by  percussion,  you  saw  an  artil- 
leryman running  away  from  the  second  gun  of 
the  end  battery,  and  almost  involuntarily  you 
said  :  "  His  comrades  will  follow."  But  the  little 
fellow  was  only  going  to  the  limber  after  another 
shell.  He  returned  with  it  as  fast  as  he  could 
scramble  over  the  rocks,  and  a  minute  or  two 
later  it  had  exploded  among  the  Turkish  in- 
fantry. 

Suddenly  a  burst  of  yellow  smoke  flew  up  to 
the  rear  of  the  gun  nearest  the  ravine  just  as  the 
artilleryman  who  brought  its  shells  was  about  to 
lay  his  hands  on  another.  The  limber  had  been 
blown  to  pieces  and  the  shell-carrier  was  the 
object  of  a  miracle.  He  rose  like  one  from  the 
dead,  and,  at  the  beck  of  a  hastening  officer,  hur- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         169 

ried  off  to  get  a  loan  from  his  neighbor's  limber. 
Once  the  shell  was  brought,  the  officer  himself 
slipped  it  into  the  breech  and  the  bearer  with 
the  other  artillerymen  of  the  end  battery,  super- 
ciliously  unmindful  of  the  Turkish  batteries, 
went  on  throwing  iron  into  the  Turkish  infantry 
where  it  was  needed  but  not  wanted ;  went  on, 
in  the  midst  of  a  rain  of  flying  fragments,  being 
covered  with  dust,  blood  and  glory.  You  knew 
now  that  the  men  in  the  end  battery  would  stand 
their  ground  until  they  were  killed  off  to  a  man. 
You  knew  that  they  had  learned  to  love  that 
living,  speaking  piece  of  steel,  a  gun,  and  there- 
fore they  would  not  desert  her  for  love  of  God  or 
fear  of  death. 

Soon  the  Turks  themselves  were  convinced  that 
at  a  moment  when  shells  were  so  valuable  the 
end  battery  must  be  silenced  in  another  way.  On 
previous  occasions  they  had  found  our  infantry 
more  easily  frightened  than  our  artillery,  and 
they  now  shifted  their  fire  from  the  ridge  to  the 
line  across  the  ravine  which,  in  turn,  became  the 
critical  point  of  the  battle.  The  wedge  was  mov- 
ing more  slowly,  its  front  ranks  being  thinned  so 
rapidly  that  they  might  have  stopped  but  for  the 
impetus  of  the  reserves  being  crowded  in  from 


170         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

the  rear.  An  occasional  Turk  who  longed  to  be 
the  first  to  bathe  his  bayonet  in  Greek  blood  that 
day,  rushing  on  ahead,  would  almost  reach  a 
rifle-pit  before  he  fell  dead  or  wounded.  When 
only  wounded  he  continued  to  fire. 

If  either  side  of  the  wedge,  e7i  masse,  should 
reach  the  rifle-pits,  many,  though  less  than  the 
number  of  its  dead,  would  force  that  test  of  cold 
steel  for  which  the  Greeks  had  so  little  stomach. 
Some  of  the  Greek  riflemen  had  become  so  ner- 
vous that  they  lay  gasping,  and  aimlessly  work- 
ing the  mechanism  of  their  rifles,  without  having 
placed  cartridges  in  them.  That  chilling  buzz- 
buzz-buzz  of  the  storm  of  bullets  above  their 
heads  would  no  longer  deter  them  from  rising 
once  the  line  across  the  ravine  broke. 

The  steps  of  the  front  ranks  of  the  Turkish 
skirmishers  became  shorter  and  less  frequent. 
On  the  right  side  of  the  wedge  they  were  little 
more  than  a  shuffle  of  pretense.  Finally,  the 
Turkish  field  guns,  which  had  been  shooting 
wildly,  seemed  to  find  the  range  of  the  line  across 
the  ravine.  Two  shells  burst  at  the  same  mo- 
ment plump  in  its  right  end.  The  ten  or  dozen 
men  who  must  have  been  killed  and  wounded 
had    no   place   in   your   thoughts.      Would   the 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         171 

score  that  had  scattered,  which  fast  became  two, 
three  and  four  score,  be  whipped  back  into  po- 
sition? The  Turkish  wedge  seemed  almost  to 
be  swinging  its  huge  body  as  it  made  ready  to 
spring  upon  its  prey  immediately  its  prey  turned 
tail.  The  break  extending  from  the  right  of  the 
line,  where  the  shells  had  exploded,  finally 
reached  a  point  where  three  or  four  blue  figures 
stood  their  ground,  and  there  it  stopped.  A  few 
well-chosen  words  and  the  courage  of  a  lieutenant 
or  even  of  a  private  may  have  turned  the  tide. 
Those  who  had  strayed  from  the  fold  were 
gradually  brought  back  to  their  places  by  officers 
who  were  vigorously  swinging  their  swords,  until 
there  was  again  a  line  of  blue  stretching  from 
spur  to  spur,  once  more  eloquent  with  a  raking 
rifle  fire. 

The  right  side  of  the  Turkish  wedge  which 
had  given  and  received  lead  so  steadfastly,  which 
had  been  the  especial  object  of  favors  from  the 
end  battery,  showed  through  the  smoke  a  dog- 
gedly wavering  bend  in  its  line  whose  ends 
slowly  fell  back  four  or  five  grudging  steps  even 
with  the  bend,  steadily  firing.  A  string  of  bodies 
marked  clearly  where  it  had  stood  a  moment  be- 
fore.    From    instinctive   realization    of   superior 


172        Going  to  War  in  Greece 

force  which  he  could  not  overcome  the  Turkish 
skirmisher  continued  to  recede.  The  point  of 
the  wedge  had  also  ceased  to  advance.  All  were 
too  tenacious  to  fall  back  rapidly,  as  indeed 
they  might  not  have  done  had  they  tried  to,  on 
account  of  the  reserves  which  were  still  being 
pushed  into  the  rear  of  the  wedge.  Shortly  after 
five  o*clock  it  was  clear  enough  that  the  attack 
was  a  failure. 

You  breathed  freely  again.  You  put  down 
your  field-glasses  and  lifted  your  eyes  from  the 
ravine  to  see  the  sunlight  playing  on  that  part 
of  the  plain,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Pharsala, 
the  serenity  of  which  was  undisturbed  by  the 
killing  of  a  thousand  or  more  men  a  few  miles 
away.  Suddenly,  you  almost  jumped  to  your 
feet  as  the  ground  shook  under  you,  concurrent 
with  a  mighty  burst  of  sound  just  over  your  head, 
which  merely  announced  that  the  citadel  gun 
was  sending  another  shell  into  the  Turkish  bat- 
teries. It  was  followed  by  all  the  rattle  and  roar 
of  battle,  which  awakened  you  to  the  fact  that 
for  the  bad  quarter  of  an  hour  for  the  artillery- 
men in  the  end  battery  and  for  the  bad  quarter 
of  an  hour  that  followed  for  the  infantrymen  in 
the  line  across  the  ravine,  your  sense  of  hearingV 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         173 

had  been  robbed  of  its  function  by  your  sense  of 
sight. 

The  Krupps  on  the  citadel  and  on  the  heights 
behind  the  citadel  were  quite  out  of  reach  of  the 
Turkish  field  guns.  As  you  saw  the  gunners 
of  the  citadel  Krupp  dancing  about  joyously  after 
every  successful  shot,  you  felt  a  devilish  desire 
that  at  least  one  shell  might  be  dropped  near 
enough  to  give  them  a  taste  of  what  the  gun- 
ners in  the  end  battery  had  suffered  for  their 
sake.  Their  marksmanship  was  generally  excel- 
lent as  it  ought  to  have  been,  because  it  is  one 
thing  to  take  aim  when  you  are  out  of  danger, 
and  quite  another  when  your  eyes  are  blinded 
with  dust  and  there  may  be  a  drop  of  a  comrade's 
blood  on  the  end  of  your  nose. 

In  their  haste  to  reenforce  the  wedge  the 
Turks  brought  a  solid  battalion  within  range  of 
the  citadel  Krupp,  which  promptly  transferred 
its  attentions  from  the  Turkish  batteries  to  this 
more  enticing  mark.  There  was  a  broad  grin  on 
the  face  of  the  lieutenant  at  the  range-finder  as 
he  adjusted  his  aim  with  great  coolness  and  care. 
Your  heart  was  beating  with  the  same  fiendish 
hope  as  his  when  he  finally  stepped  back,  and  a 
second  later  your  eardrums  seemed  to  crack  and 


174         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

you  watched  a  dark  streak  flying  over  six  miles 
of  ridges  and  plain.  The  shell  landed  in  the 
middle  of  that  battalion,  and  must  have  killed 
more  men  than  any  other  shell  fired  in  the  cam- 
paign. The  lieutenant  swung  his  cap  and  cheered 
as  if  he  were  mad.  You  hoped  that  the  artil- 
lerymen on  the  front  ridge  at  the  right  had  seen 
this  bit  of  destruction,  too ;  for  you  knew  how 
much  good  it  would  do  them.  The  battalion  was 
brought  quickly  back  into  line  and  then  was 
deployed  with  all  speed.  If  our  lieutenant  had 
spent  less  time  in  celebrating  his  feat  he  might 
have  had  another  shot  at  it  in  closed  form.  His 
next  try  was  for  an  advancing  battery,  which  he 
missed  by  a  good  twenty  yards. 

Gradually  falling  away  from  the  right  ridges, 
where  the  fire  against  them  was  much  heavier, 
the  Turks  moved  over  to  the  left  prong  of  the  V 
where  the  ridges  were  lower  and  less  precipitous. 
The  left  prong  of  the  V  was  also  at  a  broader 
angle  to  the  line  across  the  ravine,  with  a  consid- 
erable bend,  and  could  not  offer  so  broad  a  cross 
fire.  Edhem  continued  to  advance  some  of  his 
batteries  on  the  right  in  the  teeth  of  the  heavy 
fire  from  our  field  guns  and  Krupps,  while  he 
brought  five  or  six  of  his  pieces  around  to  the 
left  of  the  military  road. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         175 

As  the  skirmishers  advanced  toward  the  left 
side  of  the  V,  the  Greek  riflemen  there  kept  up 
a  steady  succession  of  volleys,  which  finally  made 
the  enemy  halt  with  the  same  reluctance  that 
he  had  halted  on  the  right,  this  time  on  the  edge 
of  a  piece  of  ploughed  ground.  A  few  venture- 
some fanatics  went  farther,  but  not  the  mass. 
The  places  of  those  who  were  killed  in  the  front 
ranks  were  taken  by  those  who  came  forward 
from  the  ranks  behind. 

When  the  curtain  of  darkness  fell  upon  the 
scene  of  butchery  at  seven  o'clock  and  we  who 
had  had  seats  in  the  gallery  for  the  spectacle 
arose,  this  front  line  of  the  Turks  was  still  hang- 
ing doggedly  on  to  the  patch  of  ploughed  ground, 
at  a  needless  loss  of  life,  as  much  as  to  say : 

**  Edhem  Pasha,  we  cannot  go  farther ;  but,  in 
the  name  of  the  Prophet,  we  will  hold  every  inch 
that  we  have." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  world,  already  surfeited  with  Greek  de- 
feats, as  soon  as  it  knew  that  the  Army  of 
the  Cafe  had  been  defeated  again,  had  little 
interest  to  spare  for  the  one  real  fight  of  the  war  ; 
but,  I  pray  you,  do  not  forget  the  artillerymen  in 
the  end  battery.  If  you  have  heard  that  they 
bore  themselves  with  small  credit  in  the  first 
seven  days'  fighting,  remember  that  they  were 
only  peasant  boys  then  and  not  veterans  ;  imagine 
the  misery  in  their  hearts,  in  their  empty  stom- 
achs and  aching  limbs,  when  they  had  to  draw  off 
their  guns  in  the  darkness,  carrying  their  wounded 
comrades  as  best  they  might. 

For,  that  night,  we  were  to  fall  back  for  the 
third  time  in  thirty  days.  Domoko,  which  on 
Monday  morning  had  swarmed  with  officers  be- 
lieving in  an  armistice,  on  Monday  evening  at 
dusk  was  deserted  and  uncannily  silent,  was  to 
be  pillaged  at  midnight  by  the  Greek  Irregulars 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         177 

and  to  be  occupied  on  Tuesday  morning  by  the 
Turks,  who  wondered  how  and  why  the  Greeks 
had  departed  so  suddenly. 

The  reasons  for  the  Crown  Prince's  decision  to 
retreat,  made  at  a  later  hour,  became  evident  as  at 
eight  o'clock  one  walked  along  the  road  at  the 
right  of  the  town  after  leaving  the  telegraph  office. 
In  the  distance,  on  the  mountain  side  at  the  right 
where  the  opening  gun  of  the  battle  had  been 
fired  at  noon,  were  plainly  visible  the  lights  of 
burning  shepherds'  huts  which  marked  just  how 
far  the  enemy,  who  unwittingly  carried  beacons, 
had  advanced. 

Occasional  flashes  of  fire  still  to  be  seen  near 
the  mouth  of  the  ravine  were  mostly  from  the 
rifles  of  wounded  Turks  of  unconquerable  spirit 
who  thus  blindly  endeavored  to  wreak  vengeance 
on  their  invisible  enemies.  Along  the  military 
road  which  runs  around  the  ridges  down  to  the 
plain  the  jaded  Greek  cavalry  came  at  a  tired 
trot.  Late  in  the  afternoon  the  cavalry  had 
been  ordered  to  hurry  to  the  ravine,  though  what 
they  were  to  charge,  unless  the  Greek  infantry, 
was  not  exactly  clear.  Arriving  at  the  ravine 
some  minutes  after  the  crisis  had  passed,  the 
cavalry   turned   around   and   came   back  in  the 


178         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

company  of  the  wounded  who  were  being  trans- 
ported in  the  arms  of  comrades  and  in  the  few 
jolting  carts  which  the  medical  corps  had  been 
able  to  muster.  The  total  number  of  stretchers 
on  hand  the  day  before  the  battle  was  three. 
When  the  one  foreign  doctor  at  Domoko  over- 
heard the  corps  bemoaning  the  fact,  he  sug- 
gested that  hammer,  nails,  cloth  and  boards  were 
to  be  had.  The  corps  replied,  with  a  shrugging 
of  shoulders :  "  Never  mind  !  It  is  not  neces- 
sary. For  there  is  an  armistice,  and  the  war  is 
finished."  A  few  of  the  doctors,  however,  when 
necessity  pressed  so  suddenly  and  so  hard  upon 
them,  had  done  their  duty  under  heavy  fire. 
One  of  these  I  saw  lying  by  the  roadside,  moan- 
ing piteously,  with  a  piece  of  shell  in  his  abdomen. 
Our  carriage  was  waiting  at  the  rear  near  a 
peasant's  hut  which  was  occupied  by  a  number 
of  the  seriously  wounded.  Such  of  these  as  were 
actually  dying  usually  bore  an  expression  of  stu- 
pefaction, while  an  expression  of  horror,  which 
suggested  fear  of  death,  was  more  often  to  be 
seen  on  the  faces  of  those  whose  wounds  were 
less  serious.  An  opiate  had  eased  the  departure 
of  the  mortally  wounded,  and  pain  had  awakened 
the  imagination  of  the  others. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         179 

Joining  the  procession  of  wounded  we  drove 
on  at  its  halting  pace,  forewarned  every  few 
minutes  of  a  rut  in  the  road  by  the  groans  of 
the  limp  figures  in  the  cart  ahead  of  us,  until  we 
reached  the  other  side  of  the  little  plain  which  lies 
between  the  heights  of  Domoko  and  the  entrance 
to  Phourka  Pass.  Here,  going  some  distance 
to  one  side  of  the  road  in  a  sheltered  spot,  we 
staked  our  horses  for  the  night ;  a  precaution 
warranted  by  the  general  principle  that  a  cor- 
respondent's eyes  were  of  more  value  than  his 
ears  in  ascertaining  the  intentions  of  the  Army 
of  the  Caf6.  If  there  were  to  be  a  retreat  we 
should  not  be  caught  in  another  such  crush  as 
that  on  the  road  from  Mati,  and  if  the  fighting 
continued  on  the  morrow  we  should  be  within  a 
short  distance  of  the  field  of  action. 

For  the  moment  our  own  commissariat  was  of 
vital  and  preponderant  interest.  You  may  gorge 
your  stomach,  but  the  food  will  disappear  like 
tinder  in  a  furnace  when  you  are  watching  a 
battle ;  and  the  attack  on  the  ravine  was  enough 
to  digest  three  or  four  dinners.  The  ever  re- 
sourceful and  cheerful  Carlos  found,  grouped 
around  a  fire  in  a  hut,  some  deserters  who  had 
roast  lamb  to  sell.     We  already  had  bread  ;  and, 


i8o         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

with  a  chunk  of  one  of  these  great  staples  in 
each  hand  and  a  bottle  of  the  bitter  native  wine 
between  my  knees,  I  soon  reached  the  summit  of 
human  happiness. 

When  our  dinner  was  finished  we  seated  our- 
selves in  the  carriage  to  write  an  account  of  the 
battle  by  the  light  of  a  candle,  while  Carlos  lay 
outside  on  the  ground  rolled  up  in  a  blanket.  I 
remember  that  we  finally  blew  out  the  candle, 
and  then  Carlos  awakened  us  with  a  severe 
shaking  as  he  shouted :  "  Those  Greeks  are  re- 
treating again  !  "  (Since  the  panic  at  Mati  Carlos 
had  never  referred  to  himself  as  a  Greek.) 

It  was  then  about  one  o'clock,  and  Carlos  told 
us  that  we  had  slept  scarcely  ten  minutes.  As 
we  rubbed  our  eyes  and  walked  over  toward  the 
road  we  heard  the  rumble  and  jolting  of  carts  and 
the  tremolo  of  the  voices  of  the  Army  of  Desola- 
tion which  was  in  the  excitement  of  gathering  up 
its  chattels  and  girding  its  loins  for  another  march. 
Dimly  outlined  at  a  right  angle  to  the  road  just 
at  the  entrance  to  the  pass  was  the  Greek  cavalry, 
presumably  there  to  reassure  the  peasants. 

From  a  military  point  of  view  the  necessity  of 
the  retreat  is  an  open  question.  If  five  thousand 
men,  which  we  could  easily  have  spared  from  our 


Going:  to  War  in  Greece         i8i 


'to 


other  positions,  had  made  a  daybreak  attack  on 
the  right,  our  line  might  have  been  straightened 
and  we  might  have  held  Domoko  for  days,  pro- 
vided that  the  Crown  Prince  had  kept  in  touch  by 
a  system  of  signals  with  SmoUenske's  force,  which 
had  not  been  engaged  at  all  on  Monday,  and 
both  had  thrown  detachments  among  the  moun- 
tains intervening  between  their  positions.  But  I 
fear  that  jealousy  stood  in  the  way  of  such  coop- 
eration. The  repulse  of  the  Turkish  wedge  in 
front  of  the  ravine  made  it  unlikely  that  Edhem 
Pasha,  oriental,  would  attack  on  the  second  day. 
If  his  attempt  to  carry  the  ravine  by  storm  in 
front  was  only  a  feint  to  cover  his  attack  on  our 
right,  then  either  his  men  got  out  of  his  hands 
or  he  did  not  mind  having  them  needlessly  butch- 
ered. His  loss  must  have  been  three  or  four 
times  ours,  which  was  about  a  thousand.  The 
order  to  retreat  was  telegraphed  from  Athens, 
where  the  signing  of  the  armistice  by  the  Sultan 
was  hourly  expected  and  must,  it  would  seem,  be 
forced  by  the  Powers  before  the  Turks  would  be 
ready  to  attack  the  Greeks  in  their  new  position 
before  Thermopylae.  It  may  be  added  that  the 
Constantinople  correspondent  of  a  London  paper, 
who  telegraphed  that  Domoko  was  in  the  posses- 


1 82         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

sion  of  the  Turks  on  Monday  three  hours  before 
our  citadel  gun  fired  its  first  shot,  received  the 
credit  for  a  news  victory. 

Dawn  found  our  carriage  still  moving  at  a 
snail's  pace,  clogged  in  the  glum  procession  of 
the  Army  of  Desolation,  half  way  up  the  pass. 
A  grizzled  shepherd  driving  his  flock  along  the 
ravine  was  the  only  energetic  person  in  sight. 
He  was  a  Wallachian — that  is,  a  Roumanian 
emigrant — and,  therefore,  had  more  reason  for 
claiming  a  direct  descent  from  the  Roman  con- 
querors than  the  modern  Greek  from  the  ancient 
Hellenes.  His  flock,  it  would  seem,  he  had  kept 
in  hiding  for  fear  it  should  become  the  prey  of 
the  soldiers  of  either  army.  I  had  seen  him, 
when  he  was  obliged  to  drive  it  to  the  Greek 
rear  under  shell  fire,  as  unmindful  of  flying  frag- 
ments of  iron  as  if  they  were  butterflies,  and  as 
mindful  as  ever  lest  a  lamb  should  escape.  Sud- 
denly one  of  his  lambs  left  his  flock  and  ran  into 
the  road.  He  darted  after  it,  in  and  out  among 
the  carts  and  donkeys,  crying  : 

"Wouldst  thou  be  meat  for  the  wolves,  thou 
silly  one  ?  ** 

*'No,  he  would  be  meat  for  a  soldier,"  said  our 
smiling — still  smiling — Carlos. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         183 

The  shepherd  had  no  time  for  answering  jests. 
Just  at  that  moment  he  stuck  out  his  crook  and 
caught  the  hind  leg  of  the  erring  one  in  time  to 
save  it  from  being  crushed  by  a  cart.  Then,  pick- 
ing it  up,  he  tossed  it  head  foremost  among  its 
hungry,  frightened,  bleating  fellows  and  hurried 
off  after  another  stray  which  had  gone  in  an 
opposite  direction.  There  was  no  sign  of  his 
night's  labor  in  his  face.  For  any  tale  that  its 
carved,  wooden  lines  told  he  might  have  been 
starving  or  gorged  with  food,  broken  hearted  or 
joyous.  His  thick,  uncovered  gray  hair  grew 
down  over  his  low,  bronzed  forehead  like  a 
thatch.  His  nose  was  such  as  we  fancy  that  a 
Roman  centurion  had.  He  was  a  grim  and  nat- 
ural man,  the  master  of  his  flock. 

If  he  alone  of  that  exodus  of  Biblical  coloring 
was  energetic,  the  fuzzy  baby  donkeys — ambling 
along  on  stilt-like  legs  which  appeared  to  be  too' 
weak  to  bear  even  those  irresistible  handles,  their 
huge,  furry  ears — alone  were  fresh  and  sprightly. 
They  v/ere  neither  more  gentle  nor  helpless  than 
the  children  strapped  on  the  backs  of  the 
maternal  and  the  paternal  donkeys ;  than  the 
women  who  carried  the  youngest  of  their  off- 
spring  in    their   arms ;    than    even  the   bearded 


184         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

children  who  were  so  important  as  to  have  a  pair 
of  oxen.  The  bearded  children  had  gone  north 
after  the  occupation  of  Thessaly  by  Greece  to 
make  a  home.  They  were  the  only  Greeks  op- 
posed to  the  war.  Now  they  had  to  give  up 
their  partly  made  homes.  Far  worthier  sufferers 
than  the  Armenians,  in  starving  thousands  on 
the  islands  of  the  ^gean  Sea  and  in  the  rear  of 
the  army,  they  had  been  unnoticed  by  the  hu- 
manitarian sentiment  of  Western  Europe  because 
an  army  supported  by  them  for  their  defence  had 
so  tardily  responded  to  the  demands  of  duty, 
gratitude  and  chivalry. 

The  Army  of  Desolation  went  its  way  of  dis- 
aster and  of  suffering  with  the  meekness  of  a 
subject  race  going  under  the  yoke  of  its  latest 
conqueror.  If  there  were  any  struggles  in  its 
eddies,  resulting  from  simple  causes,  they  were 
merely  pantomimic,  lacking  the  necessary  force 
to  do  any  one  physical  injury.  You  heard  ever 
in  varying  pitch  the  tremolo  of  the  women  and 
now  and  then  loud  cries  when  the  reason  for  the 
halt  was  near  at  hand ;  when  part  or  all  of  some 
donkey's  pack  was  about  to  slide  off  his  back  on 
to  the  ground.  Then  the  baby  donkeys  ran  to 
their  mothers'  sides  only  to  have  their  meals  de- 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         185 

ferred  again  as  the  women  tightened  a  rope  and 
rearranged  their  household  goods ;  and  once  more 
the  helpless  procession  moved  on,  the  baby  don- 
keys putting  all  of  their  trust  in  their  mothers, 
and  the  helpless  deserters  from  the  Army  of  the 
the  Cafe,  side  by  side  with  the  helpless  peasants, 
putting  all  of  their  trust  in  the  road  which  was 
now  their  common  mother. 

In  a  little  ravine  near  the  summit  of  the  pass 
we  saw  a  road  wagon  with  yellow  trimmings,  the 
fine  pair  of  bays  hitched  to  it  being  tied  to  a 
bush.  Among  the  heavy-laden  asses  and  the 
slab-wheeled  ox-carts  a  woman  in  a  ball  gown 
could  scarcely  have  seemed  more  out  of  place. 
It  had  brought  on  the  Crown  Prince  and  three 
members  of  his  staff  before  any  part  of  his  army 
had  begun  to  fall  back.  He  was  lying  on  the 
ground,  while  his  aides-de-camp  were  cutting 
brush  to  make  a  fire  to  boil  coffee.  The  Army 
of  Desolation  passed  in  silence  him  whom  only 
prophecy  had  made  a  conqueror. 

Coming  to  a  bridle  path  which  enabled  us  to 
save  two  or  three  miles  we  took  the  cut,  rejoin- 
ing the  winding,  graded,  military  road  just 
beyond  the  head  of  the  procession :  which  was 
two  Turkish  prisoners  in  charge  of  four  Reserves 


1 86         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

who  seemed  to  advance  with  the  air  of  having  a 
paltry  excuse  to  offer  for  what  was  to  follow. 

We  might  now  travel  for  the  rest  of  the  way 
to  Lamia  at  reasonable  speed.  By  eleveti  o'clock 
we  were  in  front  of  Lamia's  principal  caf^. 
While  waiting  for  coffee  and  for  our  horses  to  rest, 
our  attention  was  diverted  by  an  aged  priest  who 
came  riding  into  the  town  square  with  consider- 
able pomp  on  a  very  small  ass.  He  was  imme- 
diately surrounded  by  hangers-on  to  whom  he 
told  an  exciting  tale  of  disaster. 

A  minute  later,  I  felt  a  rough  hand  against  my 
cheek  and  an  arm  around  my  neck.  Dumlos  ap- 
parently had  sprung  out  of  the  earth.  The  last 
time  that  I  had  seen  the  rascal,  he  was  hurrying 
out  of  all  danger  at  Velestino, — but  he  had  not 
seen  me. 

"  Did  you  kill  your  hundred  Turks  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  I  did,  O  worthy  sir,  and  many  more.*" 

"  And  yet  the  Greeks  were  defeated.  How  do 
you  explain  that,  Dumlos?  " 

"  The  infidels  came  on  in  their  millions. 
There  was  only  one  Dumlos  to  face  them.  I 
killed  my  hundred  and  my  two  hundred,  it  is 
true,  O  worthy  sir.  But  why  shouldst  thou  won- 
der?    Canst  thou  stop  the  rainstorm  by  catching 


"  The  odds  and  ends  of  an  army's  rear." 


"  To  whom  he  told  an  exciting  tale. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         187 

a  hundred  drops  in  thine  outstretched  hand? 
If  thou  wilt  give  a  cup  of  coffee  to  a  friend  who 
has  not  eaten  for  two  days  I  will  tell  thee  all  of 
my  adventures." 

While  he  chattered  the  Army  of  Desolation, 
ever  the  Army  of  Desolation  and  finally  the 
Army  of  Desolation  passed  through  the  square, 
stopping  neither  for  drink  nor  for  food.  Be- 
tween two  detachments  of  it,  as  it  were,  came 
the  remnants  of  the  Greek  cavalry.  When  we 
left  Lamia  for  Stylida  the  glum  procession  was 
still  coming,  as  if  endless. 

At  Stylida  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  send 
our  telegrams  to  Athens  on  a  transport  which 
was  carrying  all  that  it  could  of  the  wounded 
whom  we  had  accompanied  on  the  previous 
evening  as  far  as  the  entrance  to  Phourka.  Gar- 
ibaldians  and  Reserves,  with  dust-begrimed,  red- 
dish spots  around  tiny  holes  in  some  part  of 
their  clothing  or  blood-stained  bandages  on 
their  heads,  continued  to  arrive  by  the  little 
railroad  from  Lamia  as  fast  as  its  rolling  stock  of 
one  locomotive  and  four  or  five  flat  cars  could 
bring  them.  The  Garibaldians  had  suffered 
severely,  and  the  devotion  of  such  of  them  as  were 
not  wounded  to  those  who  were  was  touching. 


1 8  8        Going  to  War  in  Greece 

After  ten  days  of  tedious  waiting  the  German 
hospital  with  the  huge  flag  had  reached  the 
height  of  its  ambition.  Its  tent  being  full,  first 
one  and  then  another  peasant's  house  had  been 
occupied,  while  rows  of  stretchers  on  the  shore 
awaited  accommodation.  A  fair-haired  surgeon, 
as  spick  and  span  as  if  on  review  before  his  em- 
peror, decided  in  a  moment's  examination  of  a 
patient  what  ought  to  be  done  and  performed 
operations  with  seemingly  brutal,  but  truly 
Christian,  rapidity. 

"  It  is  as  I  expected,"  he  said  with  the  latter- 
day  self-confidence  of  his  race.  "  Everything 
was  ready  and  everything  is  going  on  as  we  had 
planned." 

In  Greece,  at  that  moment,  he  seemed  very 
wonderful  to  sleepy  eyes,  though  in  Western 
Europe  at  any  time  he  would  have  seemed  very 
commonplace. 

Fair-haired  nurses,  spick  and  span,  too,  sent 
loiterers,  who  started  to  disturb  a  dangerously 
wounded  man  with  questions,  on  about  their 
business,  and  then  recalled  them  with  rugged 
gestures  to  move  a  cot,  scolding  them  roundly  in 
a  language  which  they  did  not  understand,  if 
they  did  not  place  it  on  the  ground  gently. 


->  ->   ;   5'.'   ' 


'      5       1        >    ' 


"The  Army  of  Desolation,  again. 


And,  again,  the  Army  of  Desolation." 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         189 

One  nurse  was  vigorously  stirring  the  contents 
of  a  great  pot  over  a  fine  field  hospital  stove, 
making  all  of  the  soldiers  of  the  cafe  who  were 
well  enough  to  be  hungry  sniff  and  sniff  again 
and  pass  the  good  word  around  from  stretcher 
to  stretcher  with  suggestive  glances.  I  know  of 
two  correspondents  who  longed  for  a  bowl  of 
this  soup,  though  they  might  not  ask  for  it  under 
the  circumstances.  If  you  have  been  in  a  battle 
and  ridden  all  night  without  food  you  can  realize 
how  well  it  tasted  to  a  plain  Reservist  who  had 
only  a  flesh  wound. 

For  us,  Carlos  found  some  delicious  fresh  fish 
— conjured  them  up  out  of  the  sea  with  a  diving 
rod,  along  with  a  man  who  had  a  skillet  and  a 
charcoal  fire,  I  suppose.  He  did  not  care  to 
have  us  ask  him  questions  about  his  methods. 

"  I  know !  I  know  these  Greeks,"  he  would 
say.  "  You  leave  all  to  rne  and  you  will  always 
live  like  pashas." 

After  dinner,  treating  us  like  helpless  children 
as  he  ever  did,  he  prepared  to  put  us  to  bed. 
He  tied  some  blankets  across  from  one  pile  of 
unused  railroad  ties  to  another,  making  a  ver- 
itable canopy.  Underneath  it  he  spread  a  quan- 
tity of   unthreshed   barley    straw,    appropriated 


190         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

from  a  huge  stack  which  vainly  awaited  ship- 
ment to  the  islands  where  it  would  be  out  of 
reach  of  the  Turk.  Some  soldiers  who  were 
chattering  near  by  he  drove  away  for  fear  they 
might  disturb  us.  What  a  luxury  it  was  to  pull 
off  our  boots,  to  bury  our  toes  deep  in  the  straw, 
to  arrange  our  blankets,  and  then  to  fall  asleep 
instantly  from  sheer  physical  exhaustion  ! 

The  next  day  brought  Stylida  a  little  panic  of 
its  own.  Peasants  gathered  on  the  shore  and 
screamed  for  boats  to  save  them  from  the  Turks 
who,  some  one  had  said,  were  only  two  or  three 
miles  away.  The  big  flag  floated  defiantly  over 
the  German  hospital  while  the  imperturable  sur- 
geon and  nurses  went  on  with  their  work. 

Personally,  we  were  more  interested  in  the 
exact  location  of  the  Army  of  the  Cafe  than 
anything  else — information  not  procurable  from 
rumors  but  from  personal  investigation,  as  ex- 
perience had  taught  us.  We  sent  our  ponies 
around  by  land  to  Molo,  while  we  crossed  the 
gulf  to  this  village,  a  few  miles  to  the  rear  of 
Thermopylae,  which  must  be  the  base  of  supplies 
for  the  army's  next  stand.  Stragglers  were  al- 
ready coming  into  Molo  with  tales  of  a  massacre 
in  Phourka  Pass  and  a  terrible  panic  at  Lamia. 


3        'J 


y      »    »  » 


The  remnants  of  the  cavalry. 


And,  finally,  the  Army  of  Desolation. 


Going  to  War  in  Greece         191 

Our  ponies  arriving  dead  beat  after  dark,  we  had 
to  postpone  the  ride  to  Thermopylae. 

The  next  morning  saw  the  Greek  navy  and 
two  or  three  transports  in  the  gulf  just  in  front 
of  Molo.  Colonel  Vassos's  'troops,  which  had 
been  recalled  from  Crete  to  be  sent  to  the  front, 
having  been  landed  at  daylight,  were  wandering 
about  on  the  shore  and  into  the  town  as  they 
pleased.  Vassos  himself  was  sitting  near  the 
pier  surrounded  by  his  staff,  while  a  big  Cretan 
bodyguard  swaggered  up  and  down  in  front  of 
them.  In  reply  to  a  question  the  colonel  said 
that  the  Crown  Prince's  army  was  at  Thermop' 
ylae  already,  and  Smollenske  was  hurrying  to 
Thermopylae  around  the  gulf  by  way  of  Lamia, 
He  seemed  glum  and  scarcely  self-contained. 

"  There  will  be  a  terrible  massacre  at  Thermop- 
ylae— a  terrible  massacre,  indeed,"  he  declared, 
as  he  looked  helplessly  at  his'straggling  men. 

Rowing  out  to  the  royal  yacht  (which  was  in 
the  harbor)  we  learned,  in  truth,  that  on  the  morn- 
ing after  the  battle  the  Foreign  Legion  and  the 
troops  covering  the  retreat  had  been  hotly  en- 
gaged ;  Smollenske  was  still  at  Armyro ;  the 
Crown  Prince's  army  was  in  disordered  fragments 
strung  from  Phourka  to  Thermopylae;  and  the 


192         Going  to  War  in  Greece 

Army  of  Desolation  was  encamped  in  its  thou- 
sands beyond  Molo.  Greek  officers  had  gone  out 
to  confer  with  Edhem  Pasha.  A  member  of  the 
cabinet  was  also  at  Phourka.  We  waited  for  his 
return  to  the  yacht  an  hour  later,  when  he  an- 
nounced that  the  armistice  had  been  definitely 
arranged  in  time  to  save  the  Greeks  from  annihil- 
ation. 

The  war  was  at  an  end,  having  lasted  a  month. 


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